Learn Me Right
by Thousand Arrows
Summary: Alain sets off without Mairin. Desiring strength and power to protect the ones he loves. But he will soon learn through a mysterious girl that strength and power do not come as he thinks. First fanfic!
1. The Call

It's kinda funny. When you're the Champion and you're facing off against three primordial Pokemon, and then you just retire back to your little home in Mossdeep like any other day. Especially when it's a deadly situation and you're only there to save a giant rock. Yeah, that's kinda funny.

After Steven had flown back to Mossdeep from Rustboro, he moved sluggishly into his home and sat at the table. He had a lot of things on his mind. For one, Alain had already left Hoenn for Kalos; and he left his friend Mairin behind. And also, what was this guy's goals? To beat every mega evolved Pokemon and stand at the summit? Something about that didn't seem right..

Was Alain trying to acquire power? Must be, if he is anything like his boss Lysandre. There was bad news about this Lysandre guy, and Steven knew it. He knew he couldn't trust him. And Steven knew if Alain was acquiring power he would not want Mairin around. And then something clicked in Steven's mind. _What if Alain has personal goals for said power, and Lysandre is manipulating Alain into acquiring this power for his own_ _un-Arceusly use?_ Obviously Lysandre wanted something big, or else he'd have no business taking the giant rock. And through Alain, he can get whatever else he needs while remaining low-key. Huh.

All Steven wanted to do now was investigate. First, he knew he had to get Mairin back to Kalos. The poor little girl at least deserved to be back at her home region, so he'd take her there. And when he was in Kalos, he would find Lysandre and see what he wants to do with this giant mega evolution rock. That part of the plan seemed solid; however, what was he going to do about Alain?

If Alain needed anything, it was someone who needed to show him that power was not the only key of acceptance or capability. Someone with passion and a kind heart who could show Alain that power isn't everything. But the real question was, who is this kind of person anyway?

Oh.. yeah.

Steven hadn't talked to her in a while, not since she became Champion in the Sinnoh region a few years back. But she had given Steven something he will never forget. They spent a few days together at a international charity event all champions usually go to. Her smile, her vibe, the way her hair shaped around her face was truly captivating. The way she smiled sincerely at everyone and the light soft but energetic voice she spoke in was enough for you to lose your sanity. She was truly an angel. And if there's anything she taught Steven, it's that being humble and embracing kindness before anything else was the most important lesson in life.

He just wished he had the guts to call her back then for a date or something.

But he was gonna call her right now. Not for a date - of course - but for a different reason. He waited impatiently as the phone rang. After what seemed like forever, she finally answered.

"Hello?"

"Hello, miss. This is Steven. Do you remember me? I'm the Champion in Hoenn," he started.

"Ah, yes! That's right! Steven! How have you been? I haven't talked to you in a while," she said.

"Uh, yeah, I'm good. Well, I along with a few other discovered this giant rock that somehow awakened the ancient Pokemon here, and I just got done dealing with that. But uh, I have a favor to ask of you," Steven replied.

"What is it?"

"Well, see there's this guy I know named Alain - actually he and I were the ones dealing with this whole mess. Anyway, there is a darkness in his world and I'm afraid he won't see it by himself. I think his boss is manipulating him. And he's pushing away everyone he cares about in this process. Heck, I've got his friend waiting to leave for Kalos at the Devon Corp. He left her here. Anyway, I'm afraid I won't be able to find him, because I want to be interrogating Lysandre. So-"

"So can I go to Kalos and find him?" she asked. "That's an odd favor to ask of me. After not calling me for how many years now? Three? And at this hour? Oh man."

"Yeah, I know, I'm crazy. But," Steven felt a twitch in his heart. "I remember what you taught me. You may not have realized it. But your compassion toward others has taught me not to be so selfish or power hungry, I guess. What I'm trying to say is, I think you can get to him better than anyone else can."

"Well okay, Steven. You've enticed me. I'd loved to meet this Alain. Do you know where I can find him?" she asked.

"Roaming Kalos. He loves to battle mega-evolved Pokemon with his Mega Charizard," Steven remarked.

"Ooooh, a Mega Charizard! Now you're talking! Where do you think he'd be in Kalos?" she said.

"Well, I remember his boss saying that a branch of his research laboratories is right outside of Geosenge, so maybe you could start there?" he offered.

"Sounds excellent, I've always wanted to go to Kalos. Alright, Steven Stone. I shall find this Alain and learn about him. Maybe I can offer him some advice. I don't know how helpful I'll truly be, but I can try!" she exclaimed.

"Thank you. Leave as soon as you can. It'll be good for him," Steven had said into the phone, but she already hung up. That's just like her though, always on top of the game.

And with that, Steven got ready to head over to Rustboro again. To take Mairin back to Kalos and settle this whole mystery out.


	2. When We First Met

These past few days have been so strange for me.

I had traveled to Hoenn upon Lysandre's request to look at the mega evolution ruin. But I ran into Hoenn's champion Steven Stone on my way. And thankfully I did. Because he, along with myself, Mairin, and Lysandre who had surprised us, were able to go to the top of the tower. The "Sky Pillar" as they call it. We discovered this huge rock that harvested mega evolution energy, which is exactly what I needed to gather to help Lysandre's studies. However, the Sky High Pokemon Rayquaza appeared and caused us trouble - as well as making the rock disappear.

But after we had won back the giant rock from Rayquaza, Groudon, and Kyogre. I realized I needed to get stronger in order to protect Mairin. So I immediately traveled back to Kalos with Lysandre, where I battled ten different Mega Evolution trainers with my key stone on the line and won.

Mairin had eventually returned, along with Steven apparently. She tried to come talk to me but I had to brush her off. I'm trying to get stronger so she will always be safe, and I couldn't have her shaking my focus. I feel horrible about it now, because her Chespin is pretty sick from something, and it's definitely all my fault. So I have to get back out here, to battle, become stronger, and cure Chespin. I have to.

So here I am walking through these forests. I was heading towards Cyllage City because I saw a flyer for some big bicycle race and I thought maybe there'd be some new mega trainers there.

But every time I thought about my next battle, or what my opponent would be like, I always thought of Mairin. Her face, her quirkiness, and her clumsiness. All of her was something to smile about. I really do miss her.

I was lost in my thoughts when I heard something jostling in the trees. I kept on my guard. I reached for Charizard's poke-ball when the culprit flung out of the tree.

"Haaalllloooo!"

I have to admit, I was definitely surprised.

I stepped away from the tree a little bit to regain my balance and catch my breath. When I looked up, there was this girl hanging upside down in the tree. Her long black hair nearly touched the ground. She hung there with her knees around the branch, and her arms crossed, and she was smiling at me.

"Who are you?!" I exclaimed.

"Why I'm Ella," the girl calmly responded as she rather elegantly crawled off the branch. When she stood up straight, I was appalled. This girl had long, wavy black hair that went to the middle of her back. The waves in it surrounded her tanned face like a perfect picture frame. She had bright blue eyes that reminded me of the freshwater outside of Frost Cavern. She had sort of thin lips, and she was wearing a toothy grin. She wasn't curvy, not at all. Her dark skinny jeans outlined her legs and her flowing orange v-neck shirt made her look even tanner.

This girl was really something. But what does she want from me?

"Can I help you?" I ordered.

"No, not really. Well yes, I was wondering what the fastest way to Cyllage City was," she replied.

Oh great. Do I have to tell her that's where I'm going, and that she can follow me? Or should I bail on my plan and look for another opportunity? This girl's nice and all, but I don't have any time for tree lurking weirdos.

"Well, I guess if you're walking this path, then you might be going there! I know this is the main path to the city," she remarked.

"Yeah, it is," I affirmed for her. "Just keep going. You'll get there in no time." I guess I'll just go the long way.

"Heeey. Why do you look so sullen? Is something bothering you?" she started to follow me.

"No. Please don't follow me."

"Why not? We're going to the same place. What's your name?"

"It doesn't matter," I scoffed.

"I told you mine."

"Fine. It's Alain. Will you leave me alone now? I might wave to you at Cyllage City or something."

"But I'd rather talk to you now! I want to know why you're so ominous," Ella was persuading me.

I was about to let her have it, but then something else crashed in front of us. Not really crashed, but landed right in front of us. And it took Ella and me off guard.

"Hey trainers! Want to have a double battle with me and my buddy here?" asked this guy who was wearing jeans and a tee shirt. He pointed a thumb at his "buddy" who was wearing cargo pants and looked like he had just broken his nose or something. They were quite a sight. And they were definitely eager for a battle.

"No-" I began to protest, but Ella shut me up real fast.

"Heck yeah! Come on, Alain. Let's have a double battle! It'll be fun! I haven't battled since I got to this region!"

"Then it's settled," said tee shirt guy. "Let the battle commence!"

"Do any of you use mega evolution?" I asked. I really wanted to know if this battle would be worth it. But these guys looked at me like they had no idea what I was talking about. Ella said nothing. She just gave me this warm, small smile.

"Oh come on. Please don't be worried about something so little as mega evolution. Relax! Have a little fun!" Ella was egging me on now.

I finally agreed to battle with Ella against these guys, who we learned were named Ritchie and Mattie, respectively. Ritchie and Mattie went to the opposite side of the open space we found and they determined that we would all only use one Pokemon each.

Ella gave an enthusiastic nod to their rules, while I just shut my eyes.

"Charizard, go!" I shouted as I threw it's poke-ball. The ball burst in bright lights before Charizard appeared and roared extremely loud.

"Slowking, go!" Ritchie shouted.

"Mightyena, take 'em on!" Mattie followed.

Then Ella called out her Pokemon. "Umbreon! I choose you!" And her Umbreon appeared with the same determined and energetic look that Ella had.

"Since you guys agreed to battle, we'll let you have the first move!" Ritchie yelled to us.

So I was about to call out a Dragon Claw to Charizard, but Ella beat me to it.

"Umbreon! Use Shadow Ball on Slowking!"

And the Shadow Ball connected perfectly, causing some super effective damage on Slowking. But Mattie was not having it.

"Mightyena! Use Rock Smash on Umbreon!"

Ella called out for Umbreon to dodge it while I commanded Charizard to use Dragon Claw on Mightyena. The hit slowed Mightyena down, but Ritchie and Mattie weren't giving up easily.

"Slowking! Use Psychic on Charizard!" And just like that, Charizard was stuck in the air with no control of its body. Slowking waved its arms and struck Charizard's body on the ground multiple times. "Hang in there Charizard!" I called out. As much as I wanted to, I would not waste mega evolution on this battle.

"Umbreon! Use Iron Tail on Slowking!" Ella commanded. The Psychic attack stopped after the Iron Tail connected with Slowking's stomach.

"You all right, Charizard? Use Flamethrower!" I called out. For some reason, I felt thankful that Ella would have Umbreon save Charizard. I knew we were battle partners, but still...

"Slowking, Protect!" And a large yellow barrier appeared before the Pokemon. However, when the Flamethrower hit, it bounced back towards us. Our Pokemon dodged it but it came close to me. Close enough to set my scarf on fire. I had to stomp it out on the ground to put the fire out. Dammit, I really like this scarf. I heard Charizard let out a low apologetic rumble.

"No problem Charizard! Use Flamethrower again!" This time, the Flamethrower came in contact with Mightyena and did some good damage.

"Use Dark Pulse on Slowking!" Ella ordered to Umbreon, who landed yet another super effective hit. Ella did not give Slowking any chance to breathe. Instead, she called out another Shadow Ball, which sent Slowking to its trainer's feet unable to battle. I was too impressed by Ella's powerful Umbreon to notice that Mattie's Mightyena had landed a pretty good Sucker Punch on Charizard.

"Charizard! Come on! Get up!" I called out relentlessly to my Pokemon, but once again Ella was there to help. "One more Iron Tail, Umbreon!" and the Moonlight Pokemon's tail slammed onto Mightyena's back, causing it to fall to the ground.

"This isn't over yet. Ella, get Umbreon out of the way!" I was so heated by this battle, I was determined to win! "Use Blast Burn!" Charizard surrounded itself in flames before said flames engulfed around Mightyena. Once the explosion was over, victory was mine and Ella's.

Ritchie and Mattie shook our hands and accepted defeat rather well. Then, they went on their way. And all of a sudden, walking to Cyllage with Ella didn't sound so bad.

"That was wicked! That Blast Burn was totally awesome!" Ella complimented me on our way again.

"Yeah, well, we were getting pummeled out there. Thankfully we had you two," I replied.

"Say," Ella started. "What about that mega stone on Charizard's neck? No need for that?" she asked.

"No. None of you use mega evolution."

Ella only smirked. It was getting late, and she turned to me and said she had brought a tent as well as some blankets that she'd be willing to share. No one had ever offered me to stay with them.

After we set up camp, Ella had fallen asleep pretty fast. She was sleeping on the far side of the tent from me. As for me, I had a hard time falling asleep for a few hours.

 _"Alain, get away from me. I seriously don't need you in my life anymore," Mairin said as she walked away from me._

 _"I trusted you and you lied to me. I can never see you again," Professor Sycamore scolded me._

 _"You have failed me, Alain. You know how I feel about failures. Take him away!" Lysandre ordered to his creepy scientists._

"Alain? Alain!" Ella was next to me and shaking me awake. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, why?"

"You kept saying 'no, no, no' in your sleep. Bad dreams?" she asked.

"Well, perhaps."

Ella went to her bag and pulled out this feather that glowed like the moon. It was attached to a string like it was a bracelet. "Here, a Lunar Wing. Helps you get rid of bad dreams. It's a nice little trinket we have in Sinnoh," she explained.

"So you're from Sinnoh?"

"Yeah..." was all she said until she gave me a smile, and went back over to her side. "Good night," she called.

"Good night," I replied.

I rolled over to my side to look at her on her side. That's when I noticed something significant. There was a necklace laying next to her head. I sat up to get a better look, and to my great surprise, the necklace had a keystone attached to the end of it. But I decided the conversation could wait until morning, because she was already asleep and I wanted to be.


	3. Beautiful Day

I was awake when the sun was about to rise. For some reason, I have always been a morning person. It must be something about the quietness. I silently crawled out of the tent and I went to find a river to wash my face.

Kalos mornings are usually quite chilly, but this morning was very hot. I took off my jacket after I found a small lake for water.

I was just about to walk back to campsite when my Holocaster rang. I already knew who it was.

"Hello, sir," I greeted softly.

"Hello, Alain," Lysandre responded. "How is your mission coming along?"

"Good, sir. I have battled three more mega opponents since I last saw you," I informed him. I'll skip the part where some girl in a tree greeted me and forced me into a battle with two imbeciles.

"I see. And I suppose you have been gathering energy from said opponents?"

"Energy?"

"Data is what I meant. It is so early my head isn't functioning," my boss said in his kind of joking. "I knew I'd catch you because you rise so early. Well, keep gathering data, then. Farewell."

And with that, the holographic image of Lysandre faded from my Holocaster.

The mist hanging over the lake made it seem hotter. I felt like I was in a sauna. Nevertheless, I decided to stay a while and gaze at the scenery.

I began to think about what things will be like as soon as I complete this mission. I'd be back at the headquarters, Chespie would be healed, and Mairin would be happy again. I couldn't wait until I could fix all my mistakes.

I'd thought so hard that I began to think I was dreaming. My dreams almost had to best of me, because I swore I saw a Milotic swimming in this lake right in front of me.

I almost could not believe it. Milotics were so rare here, I knew I had to catch it. I reached for an empty pokeball before I heard a voice that was too familiar now.

"Milotic is not native to Kalos," Ella told me as she approached the lake.

"Did you know I was here?" I asked.

"Yep. I followed you."

"So this is your Milotic?"

"Right again."

"Huh. I would've liked to know," I told her.

"Well, you never asked," she replied.

"There's a lot of things you don't tell me, then. Kind of like that key stone you've got on a necklace," I said to her as the color left her face. She shot a guilty smile at me and threw up her hands. "You got me," she replied. "I didn't think I needed to tell you that, though."

"Why not?"

"Is mega evolution really that important to you? Or is it important for other reasons?" she interrogated me. I wish I could say she was over thinking, but she was not. Mega evolution really is not that important to me, but becoming the strongest to protect the ones I love is. And if mega evolution is the way of doing that, then so be it.

"Why do you ask questions instead of answering mine?" I asked.

"I'm kind of interested in you," she said.

I wish women would stop saying that to me.

"Well, I'm kind of interested in you, as well," I told her. She seems to know much more about me than I do of her.

"Never mind about me. I'm not that interesting," Ella said.

"What kind of name is Ella, anyway? Is it short for something like Daniella? Or Elizabeth?" I mocked her.

"No."

"What about Cinderella?" I could tell I was definitely aggravating her.

"Definitely not Cinderella. Just Ella. Always has been. Thank you. What kind of name is Alain, anyway?" she replied.

"It's the Kalosian pronunciation."

"Why can't you be called Allan like everyone else?" I guess it was her turn to irritate me.

"Because it's my name. Just like yours isn't Cinderella."

"That's a fancy phone you've got there, Allan," Ella noted. "Where did you get it?"

"My boss gave it to me, as a way to communicate with him." I replied.

"Ooooh, who's your boss?"

"Someone very dear to me."

That was all Ella asked about that. We sat in silence for a while as her Milotic waded in the fresh water. I had never seen a Milotic in person before. And I have to admit, they are so beautiful. And Ella's especially, hers shined like diamonds and it sang beautifully.

"So," I broke the silence. "Who's your mega partner?"

"You'll see when the time is right."

"Why can't you just show me now?

"Do you really need to see it now? Why is it so important to you? And I answered your other questions. So answer this one for me," Ella replied in a serious manner.

"It's important to me because I want to battle you with mega evolved Pokemon." _And because I want to prove my strength. Ella is a fierce battler. I need to prove to myself that I can beat her, because if I can, I can be sure I can help Mairin._

"Because you want to try to beat me? I know your plan. I heard your fancy phone conversation. You only battle trainers with mega evolved Pokemon."

"Cinderella, it's impolite to listen to phone conversations." I told her.

"Don't call me Cinderella."

"Don't call me Allan."

"Well, like I said. You'll see when the time is right." Ella said as she pulled the long key stone necklace out from underneath her shirt. "It's hot!" she stated.

"Yeah it is. If we get moving now, we will be at Cyllage by noon and we can go in the air-conditioned Pokemon Center," I told her as I stood up from the grass.

"Forget that," she said. She returned Milotic and looked at me with an excited expression. "Cyllage City is right next to a beach!"

Oh Arceus, no. Anything but that.

"I don't do beaches." I said flatly. Ella's expression didn't change.

"Come on, Allan," she said with a little laugh breaking in. "The beach is relaxing. And you could use some sun. And some fun."

"I thought Cinderella was locked away in a tower and she couldn't go to the beach," I said with a smirk.

"That's Sleeping Beauty, dumbass," she said coldly. "Cinderella was just abused by her so-called family members."

"I don't need your fairy tale trivia. Just get your things together and we'll head to Cyllage City." And with that we headed off.

It was then I wish I knew Team Flare was observing me.

"Sir, this is Mable. I found your bodyguard. And he's got another girlfriend," she said into her audio speakers.

"Have you taken pictures?" Lysandre replied. After Mable had sent the pictures, Lysandre was in shock.

"That is Ella, the Champion reigning over Sinnoh," he said. "She couldn't have run into Alain by accident. She's around for a purpose and must be monitored," was all Lysandre said before he disconnected with Mable.

We reached Cyllage City a lot faster than I had predicted. The sun was blazing hot and my clothes were sticking to me. As much as I didn't want to admit it, I could really use a swim.

"Okay Ella, you win. First, let's go to the Pokemon Center to make sure our Pokemon are okay. Then, I'd like to buy swim clothing at the boutique so we can hit the beach for a while during the big bike race. Sorry, but I don't want to see that."

Her face lit up. "Yay, Mr. Allan wants to go to the beach with me! Thank Arceus. I would die if I had to watch that bike race."

I picked up the first set of black swim trunks I found at the boutique but Ella took to looking at every article of clothing in the entire store. I sat outside on a bench impatiently as she shopped. When she finally came out, she had a huge shopping bag full of clothes.

"I seriously hope you at least bought a swimsuit," I said flatly.

"No need for that, I already bought one!" she exclaimed as she started to undress. I was about to scream at her for her indecency until I realized she had been wearing her swimsuit underneath her clothes this whole time.

Ella and I actually had a lot of fun at the beach. We rode the waves for a while, and when the sun went down we just sat on the shore I talked. She told me about her family and her life back in Sinnoh. She told me she loved art and I told her about Mairin.

"What's the big deal about this girl, anyway?" Ella asked me on our way back into the main part of the city.

"Mairin? I don't know. Things have been different since she's been around," I admitted. "To be honest, I did not want her around me at first. But she's brought a whole new innocent perspective in my life and I'm not sure I'm ready to lose it yet."

Ella nodded and looked away from me. The bike race was over by the time we arrived. Grant, the Gym Leader of this city had won it.

 _Typical_ , I thought. _He wins every year._

"Hey, can we stay at the Pokemon Center tonight? I have a pain in my back and I want to sleep in a bed," Ella told me.

"Sure," I smiled. And with that, we headed back to the Pokemon Center.


	4. Enchanted

The next morning, I woke up and I was surprised to discover that Ella had left our room. Her bed sheets weren't made, so I went over and felt them. They were cold, which meant that she had been gone for a while.

* * *

I have been in the main lobby of the Pokemon Center for almost a half hour now, and I've been listening to the call waiting dial from Steven's phone for most of that time. He told me to call him as soon as I can, but I don't know why considering I haven't found out much since I met Alain.

Alain is a different kind of guy. He definitely seems passionate, and I think he lets his passions get the best of him.

"Hello?" I finally heard a voice on the other end.

"Who the fuck have you been talking to?!" I demanded. "I have been on the other line for like a half hour now."

"Ah, yes. I heard all the beeping while I was on my conference call. This is Ella, isn't it?" Steven replied.

"Well, you told me to call you as soon as I can. So here I am. Calling you. What would you like to know?"

"Have you found out anything about him?" he asked.

"Nothing that you don't already know," I answered. "He's passionate about this girl named Mairin. All I know is that he doesn't want to lose her. But I don't know far from that."

"Okay, well, did you hear anything about his boss?"

"His boss? No, nothing. I can ask later if you wish," I offered.

"Sure, because I really want to know what this guy's up to."

"Alain?"

"No, his boss, Lysandre."

"Oh," I felt a little stupid. "What's wrong with his boss?"

"Well, based on the studies that I've done, Lysandre is interested in mega evolution energy. I assume Alain thinks that Lysandre studies it for peaceful purposes. Anyway, when I first met Alain he was in Hoenn looking for mega evolution ruins. To our surprises, Lysandre followed him here. We were able to reach the top of the Sky Pillar and found raw mega evolution energy that is compressed into a megalith. Lysandre immediately broke out a research team; but our coming angered the Sky High Rayquaza and also allowed the awakenings of Groudon and Kyogre. The legendary battle ended when Lysandre's team emerged from the ocean and captured the megalith. So really, I think Lysandre wants to use the energy for evil purposes and is deceiving Alain into his means."

"Uh, okay," I said. "And what about Mairin?"

"Oh I don't know," Steven started. "She's a little girl that traveled with him. After the battle with the legendaries Alain left her here in Hoenn while he traveled back to Kalos. Since I was going to Kalos to talk to Lysandre, I took her back with me. And sometime when we got there, her Chespin got itself in trouble. And now it lies in Lysandre's medical wing, glowing green and in a coma."

"Glowing... green? Huh, that's interesting. Well, I'll keep asking. I'm really determined to know what this Lysandre is up to as well."

"Thank you," Steven answered. And with that, our phone call was over. My bones went cold when I heard footsteps on the stairs.

Shit, girl. Figure out your lie.

* * *

"Who were you talking to?" I asked Ella as I approached her. I might have scared her a little, because she nearly jumped out of her skin and screamed a little. Then she awkwardly hung up the Pokemon Center's payphone.

"Uh, my... my mom. I miss her," Ella answered.

"You woke up this early to call your mom? Well, I guess Sinnoh is a few hours ahead of us," I didn't think anything of her phone call. "Well, what do you want to do today? We're in Cyllage City like you wanted."

"Um, well, first I want to change out of my bed clothes," she said with a light laugh. "And then I was thinking that we could go to Lumiose C-"

"No."

"Go to Lumiose City and take a train over to Coumarine City, because that's the only train that goes there today. If we fly on our Pokemon, we'll get to Lumiose City fast."

"What do you want at Coumarine City? That's backtracking," I said.

"Well, first of all there is a festival there this weekend, and I thought it'd be nice to experience on my little travels; and because there is a festival, a lot of mega trainers are gonna be there. Something for me and something for you."

Okay, she got me.

"Fine. Get changed and we can go."

"You sound like my father, Mr. Allan."

I ignored her nickname for me and sat down on one of the couches in the Pokemon Center. Just a short time passed before she came downstairs in jean shorts and a loose fit black shirt. Her boots knocked on the floor as she walked over to me.

"Well, I'm ready to go," she said.

I immediately sent out Charizard from its poke-ball as we walked out of the automatic doors. Ella sent out a Staraptor.

 _Ugh. Staraptor can't mega evolve._

The fly to Lumiose did not seem as long as it could have been. Wait, why were we flying to Lumiose? If we're gonna fly, why don't we just fly to Coumarine?

"Ella, why even bother flying to Lumiose City if we could just fly to Coumarine City? Forget the train," I told her.

"Because I want to see the professor!"

"What?! No. I can't see the professor."

"I never said you had to come with me."

Good. Because there was no way that I ever would. I can't see Professor Sycamore yet, not until I am at my strongest and I can protect him from anyone.

"Anyway, I'd like to see the professor and then take a train so that our Pokemon aren't strained later," Ella said.

I said nothing. Her answer was good enough for me.

When we landed in Lumiose City, I decided to go on a walk through the city while Ella went off to the professor. I thought of my childhood as I passed the laboratory, and of all the good times I've had there. That's where I met Charizard as a Charmander.

I kept walking down South Boulevard until it became North Boulevard. The museum was closed today due to an unfortunate break in that happened the night before. Hotel Richissime's room rent was more expensive than ever, as usual. I snuck down one of the side streets to get to Lumiose Tower. When I saw it I remembered the unbelievable story Mairin told me about a trainer jumping off the tower for a Pokemon.

Walking around this city made me kind of miss my old life. But it also made to want to go back to it. With Mairin.

"Hey!" I heard my favorite person shout.

"How was the professor, Ella?"

"He was okay, one of his Pokemon went rogue in the lab and he couldn't control it! However, it seemed to take a liking to me so he let me keep it. Meet Bulbasaur."

I didn't even notice the Bulbasaur standing by her feet. Bulbasaur looked up at me with a strange look. It might remember me a little, because I remember when it hatched.

"Okay, so let's go to the shop and then we'll catch the train. One leaves in an hour," Ella said.

I had to laugh. "Good luck getting in that store. They won't let you in if you don't dress well enough or have a good reputation around the city. Or if you don't mind spending 200,000 poke-dollars on a purse."

"We'll see," was all Ella said.

Needless to say, Ella got in. When the attendant saw her, a shocked look ran across her face and she allowed Ella to browse around. I wasn't surprised when Ella came out with more shopping bags.

"Okay, so let's get the train," she said.

I forgot how fast AMV tracks moved. We were in Coumarine City by mid-afternoon. They were preparing for their Pledging Tree celebrations where everyone gave people gifts. Oh crap.

Does that mean I give Ella something?

We ate dinner at a quaint cafe to kill the time.

"So tell me about Mairin," Ella said.

She got me off guard. "Mairin? What?"

"Come on."

"She's a girl I met on my journey. She's a beginner trainer, and she keeps her Chespin out of its poke-ball all the time. Well, at my boss's lab it must have got tangled in an experiment because it is now in a coma. But I can help her. I'm traveling around now so I can cure Chespin and see Mairin smile again. There. Happy?" I asked her.

"No. What does your boss do?"

"He runs a study program on mega evolution. I'm gathering data through this mega ring I wear," I showed it to her. "He wants to use it for peaceful purposes like medicine. He says we can use it to heal Chespin."

"What's your boss's name?" she asked.

"Lysandre."

"Okay. Just wondering."

"So why are you here? Why did you come to Kalos?" Once again I had the right to ask questions as well.

Ella stared at her gross kale salad before she answered. "I came... for an adventure."

"What kind of adventure?"

"I guess we'll see."

"And who's your mega partner?"

"You'll see when the time is right."

When we left the cafe, all of the city lights were out and only the tree shined in bright lights.

"Oh! It's time for gift giving!" Ella said. "Come on!"

We hurried up to get underneath the tree. Ella stood facing me. She closed the space between us and reached in her bag. To my surprise, she had bought me a new scarf. It looks exactly like my old one, just not burned.

"Wow, Ella, thank you," and I was sincerely thankful. "Where did you get this?"

"I didn't," she replied. "I made it. Out of the finest Mareep wool you can find."

I was so stunned by her talent that I completely forgot that I never got something to give her.

"Well Ella, you should have this," I took off my old burned scarf and gave it to her as a put on my new one. "It will always remind you of the epic first battle we had together."

Ella smiled and she tossed it in her hands.

"Did you make me come all this way so you could give me this?" I asked.

"Well, yes actually," her smile got even bigger and she began to laugh.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" Ramos, this city's gym leader, shouted over all the celebrations. "Tonight ends the giving celebrations, and tomorrow begins the dancing and culture festivals!"

"I kind of came for that too," Ella admitted. "Will you come to this festival with me?"

"Of course," I answered. "I can't wait."


	5. Sunset

Needless to say, my life has definitely changed in these past few weeks. After I set out to help Mairin and met this girl Ella, it seems that everything is starting to feel like it's where they are supposed to be.

I haven't thought about Lysandre much. Of course I remembered my mission and my goal to cure Chespin; but as far as Lysandre's other subjects went, they did not matter much to me.

I don't know what happened. Ella dropped into my life and suddenly it seems like I'm doing things right. Now all I need is to gather mega evolution energy and save Chespin, then things will be complete.

However, I still don't really care to be at this festival in Coumarine City. The Pledging Tree ceremony and my new scarf made me pretty happy, but all the culture celebration is kind of a drag. Especially when we could be moving along in our travels and finding better, stronger opponents. After all, I hadn't seen much battling. Even less any mega trainers.

Coumarine City's Pokemon Center was completely filled with trainers; so Ella and I had to pay money to stay in Hotel Coumarine. It's not an expensive hotel, but it's kind of a pain considering that Pokemon Center boarding is free. Ella didn't seem to mind. Even though the hotel only had single person bedrooms to offer, she happily paid for both of our rooms as if it were no trouble at all.

I woke up as early as I usually did. Instead of getting up and ready to go immediately; I laid in bed and pondered about my life's strange turns. But mostly, I thought about Mairin and how she is coming along at Lysandre's headquarters.

 _I wonder if she's happier._

 _I wonder if she's taller._

 _I wonder if she'll ever want to see me again._

I know that she's been spending her days at the side of Chespin's hospital bed. Every time Lysandre calls me, I have to ask about her. But usually nothing changes with Chespin; and nothing changes with Mairin as well.

It definitely makes me wonder, however, because I have battled numerous different trainers with key stones and collected as much mega evolution energy as I had before Chespin got sick. So why hasn't anything changed?

I didn't get a chance to progress another thought before someone burst through the door so hard that it nearly unhinged from the frame.

"Hey! Get up! We've got such a fun day ahead of us!"

Ah, an all too familiar voice now.

"Yeah, whatever. Listen, do we have to do this all day? We haven't battled anyone in a long time and I want to get back to traveling. I'm set up to meet with my boss back at his headquarters in about a month. I need more mega energy," I pleaded with her.

"What? I thought you wanted to do this. I believe your words were 'can't wait.' Come on, get out of bed and we'll do whatever makes both of us happy," Ella replied.

I rolled my eyes and sat up. "Look, I was in the heat of the moment. The aesthetics of that ceremony were amazing, with the lights and spirituality. But like I said, I want to get back on the road."

Ella kept her eyes on me from the time I got out of bed and over to the chair with my clothes. "Fine. We will take a look around at the festival, and then I'll make my girlfriend happy and leave to have battles with travelers," she said.

"Did you just call me a girl."

"Oh yes."

"That's rude."

"Fight me."

I laughed and marched my way towards her, but her new Bulbasaur vine-whipped my ankle and I fell to the ground, which sent Ella into a laughing fit as she walked out of my room.

I found her in the hotel lobby, and her eyes lit up when she saw me. I could tell she was eager to leave.

"Calm down. We still have to take the trolley," I said flatly.

"I was reading a brochure while I waited for you," Ella began. "There's lots of things to do at this festival! There's so many booths with foods from all over Kalos!"

"I'm from Lumiose City. Nothing I haven't eaten before," I told her.

"Yeah well, there's other booths! Like for your fashion needs, they have booths with pastels from Anistar and furisodes from Laverre! And speaking of Laverre, one of their famous fortune tellers comes to this festival every year!" she exclaimed.

"Fortune tellers are invalid and a waste of time, as well as an unreliable source. They are just simpletons looking to make money," I said.

"So are you secretly Giratina or do you naturally suck the life out of everything?" Ella asked.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it is now to safe to exit the train. Thank you for riding the trolley!" The train attendant exclaimed over the rustling crowd.

"Very funny," I said. We walked out of the train station and saw the Tree again. It still had it's lights on, but the streets were filled with different booths for games, shopping, or food stands.

"Let's go!" Ella grabbed my hand and ran towards it with a smile on her face.

We spent a few hours weaving around the streets, going from one booth to the next. There was one booth that had five small pyramids of Moomoo milk bottles towards the back of the booth. The objective of the game was to knock each pyramid down with one of your Pokemon's moves. You could only use one Pokemon, and you could only use the same move. Also, you only had one shot at knocking down the pyramid, so you had to be precise about it. If you beat the game, you won a prize.

Ella took on this challenge with her Bulbasaur. I stood idly behind her as her and Bulbasaur vine-whipped their way to victory. Ella got to choose a prize: either a Pikachu doll, a box of crazy expensive Pokemon food, or a Soothe Bell. She went with the food.

As we walked away, Ella turned to me and suggested we find a place to sit down with our Pokemon and let them eat the food. I agreed, but because I was hungry myself, I set off to get us one of my favorites: a creamy custard made with Gogoat's milk and topped with Oran berries.

Ella had found a couple of large stones resting together as our sitting place. She already had Bulbasaur out, but she had since called out Umbreon as well. I set down the custard and called out Charizard.

All of us ate in peace, and we told each other our stories. From the time we were little kids to the time we were beginning trainers. She laughed at me for falling out of a tree when I was little and I laughed at her for getting Thundershocked by a hoard of Pichu on her first day as a trainer.

The sun was beginning to set under the water. A warm orange light shined on Ella's face, but it quickly vanished in the place of a shadow. I looked up to find the shadow's owner, and it belonged to this big tall guy with blonde hair and brown eyes. He was wearing cargo shorts with a button up shirt that showed his muscles way too much. I was about to ask him what business he had with her, but I noticed he was looking at me.

"That's an awful nice key stone you got there kid," he kneeled down and spoke to me. "It's almost as nice as that mega stone your Charizard's got around its neck. Let's have a battle."

"Well, what do you know, Allan," Ella began. "I got to walk around the festival, and you get to battle. All in one day!"

I guess I couldn't argue. After all, it's what I wanted.

"So your name is Allan?" the big guy asked.

"No, it's Alain."

"Then why's your girl calling you Allan?"

"Because she likes to peeve me with it."

"Getting peeved by a girl, huh? Now you seem like an easy defeat even more."

I jumped up to accept this guy's battle challenge as I heard Ella laugh.

"Are you kidding me? Just because I annoy him doesn't mean he's not a good trainer. And who are you to talk? You look like Lt. Surge from Kanto except gayer," she said.

"What did you say to me?!" the guy ordered.

"I called you gay."

"Well, do you want to say that to my friends?" the big guy laughed and raised his arms as two other guys with huge muscles stepped behind him. They were wearing sunglasses with black pants and black buttoned up shirts.

"Hey look! The Rowdyruff Boys!"

I shot Ella a look after her comment. I hope she understood I wanted her to stop.

"What do you want from us?" Ella tried to require from them.

"Look kids, we'll put your snide comments aside if you have a battle with us," he was looking right at me. "If you win, then we'll be on our way and it will be as if nothing happened. But, if I win, then you have to give me that key stone, and the fancy bracelet that comes with it."

"Fine," I agreed. We walked the appropriate distance needed for a battle, and we called out our Pokemon. Charizard stood before me and big guy called out an Ampharos. When we had both used mega evolution, my Charizard was black and blue and his Ampharos had white godly hair.

"Be careful, Alain," Ella warned. "You aren't the only one wielding the dragon type here."

So I guess Charizard isn't the only one who acquires the dragon type in mega evolution. But that didn't mean I couldn't win this battle.

"Charizard, use Dragon Claw!"

"Stop Charizard in its tracks with Thunder! Then, use Dragon Pulse!" And just like that, lightning covered our battlefield and a bright purple beam headed towards Charizard.

"Push it back with Flamethrower!" I called out to Charizard. _He won't let attacks get close, so I'll have to hit from afar._

"Use Electro Ball!" He called out to his Ampharos.

"Dodge it!"

I never liked these battling styles. It always made the battle harder to progress. But if I can find a way to hit Ampharos, then I can do this.

"Dragon Pulse!"

Before I could even think, Charizard took a direct hit from Ampharos. The only thing in my mind was the triumphant smile the guy had when Charizard fell to the ground.

"Get up, Charizard! I believe in you!" I called out to it. Charizard struggled, but it stood up and was ready to fight. Its twitching wing caught my attention, which also made me notice a small piece of dry grass caught on fire from the energy of the Dragon Pulse. That's it.

"Charizard! Use Flamethrower on the grass around you!"

Charizard let out a burst of flames all around itself. The dry grass went up in flames immediately, and the grass around it that was still alive smoked like crazy. Neither Pokemon were in sight, and that meant Ampharos won't see us coming. It also meant the Light Pokemon couldn't move, as fire would damage it.

"Okay Charizard! Get up close and use Dragon Claw!" The attack plan worked. Charizard slashed Ampharos and knocked it to the ground. Super effective.

It didn't take long for the flames to die out, but I did want to end the battle with my favorite move. While Ampharos was distracted, and its trainer was definitely flustered, I called out for a Blast Burn, which resulted with Ampharos de-volving into its normal form. The battle was over.

The big guy called back his Pokemon and walked away angrily.

"What's your name?" Ella called out to him.

"Doesn't matter. Just remember Rocket."

"Rocket?" I asked Ella when the guy was far enough away.

"I get it. Like Team Rocket. They're just a bunch of criminals who like to steal shit from people and sell it. I wouldn't worry about it."

"That was quite the impressive battle." Suddenly, a woman with purple and black hair approached us. She was wearing black and purple trench coat that went down to her knee. Her skin was very pale, and she had a unsettling smile on her face.

"Hey," Ella pointed at her. "You're the fortune teller! I saw you on the brochure!"

"Yes," the fortune teller replied. "And since I enjoyed your battle so much, I'll tell you your fortune for free."

"No," I said. "It's a waste of time."

"It's a free waste of time," Ella chimed. "Fire away."

The fortune teller's smile faded into a frown. She pointed at Ella. "You will experience pain and suffering. You will go through the hardest obstacles you've ever faced in your life. All security in your life will vanish before you know it, and for reasons you wish you understood."

If I were Ella, I would have been scared a little, but she just laughed and shrugged her shoulders.

"And you," the fortune teller looked at me. "Know what's good for you. I sense a danger in your life. It's present. It has been for a while now. Learn your wits. Don't be deceived. Know who your friends are and know who your enemies are."

I guess I was a little frightened too.

"A crisis threatens Kalos," was all the fortune teller said before she slowly walked away.

"Well that was creepy," I blurted out.

"Why? Isn't it fake and irrelevant and a total waste of time?" Ella asked.

"Hearing her say those things gave me the creeps."

"I wouldn't worry about it. She liked your battle, probably wanted to get to you."

"I liked my battle too. How'd you like the blazing battlefield?" I asked.

"So clever," Ella smirked. "I bet no one thought of it before."

"Not many people take battlefields into advantage, much less burning one," I defended myself.

"Oh yeah. No one," Ella smiled and she resumed her spot on her rock.

We continued to sit on the rock until the sunset faded, and the festival went to sleep, and then we went back to the hotel to get our sleep before we traveled the next day.


	6. Anything Could Happen

It's been a few hours since started traveling again for the day. We were headed southwest, back towards where we came. Normally everyone would want to keep going forward, but I've been everywhere in this region, so I don't mind taking a few steps back.

I also don't mind a break, which Ella and I were taking right now. I relaxed on a rock with Charizard at my side and we were sharing a snack like we always do. I overlooked tall grass and trees to see the bright blue ocean rising and falling on the horizon. I got to admire this view for quite a while before my Holocaster rang. I saw my boss's identification tag on the screen, so I got up to speak with him privately.

Ella wasn't very mindful of me at the moment. For once, she didn't bother to ask where I was going or who I was talking to. It's like she finally knew everything she wanted to know.

I connected the call with Lysandre as soon as I was out of earshot. "Hello sir."

"Hello, Alain. How are your travels?" he responded.

"Very good. I met a Mega Ampharos yesterday. I was able to battle it and gather more energy," I replied.

"I see. We've still been tracking you. I notice your heading towards Shalour City," Lysandre stated.

I nodded my head so Lysandre could see my agreement on his end.

"Well then," he started. "Once you get there, I'd like you to go to the Tower of Mastery. They say the first mega evolution happened where the building stands. Talk to Gurkinn, he is the Mega Evolution guru. Ask him if there's a better way to harvest it."

"I shall, sir."

Lysandre ended the call after I spoke and then I was all alone in tall grass.

On my walk back, I started thinking about Gurkinn and all the mega evolution knowledge he might share with me. It reminded me of Ella's mysterious keystone necklace. _I wonder if he can tell me which of her Pokemon mega evolves_ , I thought bitterly. And why won't she battle me? I've probably told her my mission about five different times now. She knows it can help me.

She gave me her attention when I pushed my way out of the tall grass and into our open field.

"Hello, Allan."

"Hey, Cinderelly. I hope you don't mind going to Shalour City. I get to call the shots this time," I told her.

"I kind of thought that's where we were going in the first place," she admitted. "Why do you mention it now?"

"My boss wants me to go to the Tower of Mastery and speak to the Mega Evolution Guru G-"

"Gurkinn? Yeah I know him. I know about him at least. He has a Mega Lucario, which I think is cool because Lucario is native to Sinnoh and all."

"Are you gonna insult him, too? Like you insulted the guy from Team Rocket?"

"It was funny and you know it."

"Just don't do it again. We don't need a reputation."

Ella's eyes looked at the ground. "Yeah, I guess you're right. No big reputations." She stood up from her rock. "Well, are you ready to go?"

I called Charizard back to its pokeball as my answer to her question. We headed back past the thick tall grass, the Skiddo ranch, and the vibrant flowers dancing in the wind. The gates to Shalour City came up as quickly as I could imagine them.

I don't know what it is about Shalour City. The architecture of this place gives it a medieval vibe that fascinates me. I always loved visiting here as a kid. However, I never got to the Tower of Mastery. I was always told it wasn't the place for me because I wasn't a trainer back then. Much less did I understand anything about mega evolution. But now, it was finally my time to enter those huge stone doors.

Only it was high tide and I would have to wait until later for the tide to roll out.

The look on my face revealed my shock. I seriously traveled here on orders to go to the Tower of Mastery to learn about one of the only things I care for these days, and I had to wait.

Ella saw the high tide too, and burst out laughing.

"Looks like we get some more quality time around the city!" she said happily and sarcastically.

I rolled my eyes and walked away from the shore. "Yeah, so now what?"

"I don't know. Hmm, we go find the Pokemon Center so I can take a nap and you can do whatever you want?"

Oh, I liked that idea.

So immediately we headed to the heart of the city. Like many places in Kalos, tons of shopping stands lined the streets here. They all sell different things, like bouquets of flowers, or magazines, or finger foods to eat while you walk.

We were heading towards a stand with magazines. I jumped a little when I heard Ella breathe in with a shocked tone to her voice. She ran towards the magazine stand, grabbed every copy of the same magazine, dropped a wad of pokedollars for the clerk, and ran away. All in a matter of seconds.

I was stunned by what I just witnessed so I hesitated a little before running after her. When I found her, she was throwing all the magazines into a dumpster at the end of the street.

"Ella, what are you doing?" I questioned.

She turned and stared at me for a few seconds before she offered an answer. "I, uh, well. These tabloid magazines are trash. They fill your mind up with total garbage and there's no educational value whatsoever. I did what needed to be done."

"So, just _Pokemon Quarterly_ is trash? And none of the other ones?"

"For now," she nodded her head once. "Got to get them out of here. One issue at a time."

I can't believe I travel with someone who is so worried about tabloid magazines. Then again, Mairin doesn't know what origins are, so I can't be too harsh on Ella. Mairin likes keeping up on stories about trainers and events across Kalos. I wonder what she'd think of Ella.

"Okay, so, let's just get back into town and find the Pokemon Center," I said. I'm still baffled by what Ella did.

Ella looked down every shopping stands for the rest of our walk. She was so tense that she was actually leaning into me a little. Normally I would have pushed her away a little, but I was actually starting not to mind her being around me.

"Ella!" a distance voice shouted towards us.

Ella's face went pure white and her skin ice cold. She turned around to find the owner of the voice. It belonged to a young girl with light blue eyes and hair so black that it shined blue. She wore a pink skirt with pink boots, and a black vest top and white beanie hat.

Ella did not relax. Not even a little bit. I could tell she was on edge when she shakily replied to the girl. "Oh, hi Dawn."

Dawn walked over to us with a wide smile on her face. "So what brings you here, Ella? A couple months ago you said you were so busy with new chal-"

"My mom wanted me to visit my... cousin," Ella lied to Dawn as she patted my shoulder. "He's a trainer who needed a little help."

"No one better to help than you!" Dawn looked at me. "And what's your name?"

"It's Alain. Nice to meet you, Dawn."

"Nice to meet you as well!" she replied me to cheerfully and shook my hand.

"So what brings you out here, Dawn? Kalos is far from Sinnoh," Ella inquired.

"Kalos is trying to get into Pokemon Contests out here as well as performances. I guess they want a little more diversity than battling a performing. Which sounds great to me! So they invited many talented coordinators from Hoenn and Sinnoh! Zoey's around here, too," Dawn said as she looked around for said Zoey.

Ella laughed, which sounded fake and nervous. "Well that's nice! Maybe I'll see you around later. We have to go."

"But Ella! I thought maybe we could walk around town together and catch up! I'd really like to see how you're doing. You look pale, are you sick?" Dawn asked.

"No, I'm not sick. It's just, my cousin Alain wanted to get to a Pokemon Center before low tide so we could rest," she emphasized the word _cousin_ , and widened her eyes at me as if she wanted me to go along with the lie.

"No we didn't," I chimed. "You wanted to go to the Pokemon Center to get some rest. I'm fine doing anything else," I smiled a little at the hint of annoyance on her face.

"Awe, well," Dawn started. "If it's okay with you Ella, we can rest on a bench somewhere and just hang out."

"Yeah, Ella," I spoke sarcastically now. "Get some fresh air!"

Ella turned back towards Dawn and said, "Fine."

With that, Ella and Dawn walked back up towards the ocean so I headed in the opposite direction through town. I strolled through town thinking about Ella. Why did she try to shoo Dawn away? Dawn seemed like she was her friend in Sinnoh. Why didn't she want to her around her?

I focused my thoughts on Ella's behavior and my eyes on a young trainer with a Torchic. I didn't notice someone grab me and force me into a dark alleyway.

"What have you been doing lately?!" the stranger demanded from me.

"What do you want?" I asked calmly.

The sun emerged from behind a cloud, allowing me to see the strangers face. It was Bryony, one of the scientists working for Lysandre. Along with her was Celosia, who stood to my side.

"We want to know why you haven't been on top of your mission. And what you're doing with that girl," Bryony spat at me.

"I have been on top of my mission. I've battled so many mega trainers that it is hard to find new ones. As for the girl, she started following me a while ago and unfortunately I've grown fond of her company. Don't worry, she doesn't know about Team Flare's experiments or anything."

Celosia laughed loudly. "Yeah, well, once you find out who she really is, you'll be very fond of her."

What the hell is that supposed to mean?

The girls began to walk back in the alley, and Bryony turned around and said, "Keep gathering mega evolution energy. We need it."

"For what?" I asked. "Why do _you_ need it?"

Their eyes went wide. Bryony spoke again. "It helps us understand some Pokemon better." She stumbled over her words.

I only stared at them as they quickly disappeared.

I paced out of the alley and back onto a side street. I looked around in confusion. Did that really just happen? Did they try to threaten me to be a better mega trainer?

I never really liked them that much. Lysandre says they're not that good at their job. And they're always so full of themselves. But Lysandre's main scientist Xerosic trusts them and claims they're the right ones for the job.

But they did make some good points. Who is Ella anyway? She's a girl from Sinnoh who has a strong Pokemon team, she has friends who seem to admire her, and apparently she's busy. But she is afraid to let her friends know why she's here or what she's doing.

I still don't know what kind of threat it would pose on Ella if Dawn knew that Ella was in Kalos just to travel.

Ella had been so weird today that I kind of felt bad for forcing her to see Dawn. Especially because she was obviously trying to avoid her.

Wait.

What if Ella isn't hiding something from Dawn?

There's only one other person in that conversation she could have been hiding from.

What doesn't she want _me_ to know why she's here or what she's doing?

Now that I think about it, Ella's asked me all these questions about myself, and she's asked them so consistently that I have given her the best answers I can. Every time I asked her a question, she offered answers that were surface deep.

Why can she know so much about me but I can't know much about her.

Now I was getting angry. I walked through the streets hastily even though I was going nowhere. I passed the magazine stand that Ella took all those magazines from, and I noticed that she had missed one more _Pokemon Quarterly_ issue.

I picked up the magazine and gave money to the clerk.

As I walked away, I turned the magazine over in my hands to the cover.

Even though Ella's surface deep answers weren't good enough for me, the surface of this magazine was all I needed for answers about Ella.

The magazine featured a photo of Ella, and it described her as "Sinnoh's Unburnt Champion."


	7. Unbreakable Bonds

At first, I couldn't believe it.

But after a few seconds of rationalization it did seem to make clear sense.

After all, what kind of advanced trainer drops out of nowhere in a new region? Also, what kind of trainer beats around the bush when answering personal questions? Ella avoided every question I asked that might force her to admit her status.

But of all the people that walked past her that day she chose me. So why couldn't she tell me the truth? And why has she demanded the truth from me on numerous occasions but once the roles were swapped, she shied away?

 _Champion_. The word jumped out at me in bold edgy letters.

So all this time Ella had been the Champion of the Sinnoh Region. I'm not surprised at all. Her battling skills were outstanding. On one occasion I thought that she'd give our champion, Diantha, a run for her money.

I wanted to be angry at her. In fact, I felt furious that she couldn't share this information with me. If she wanted me to trust her with my secrets, then she could have at least trusted me with hers.

But a small wave of emotion passed through me that kept me from getting angry at her.

While I wanted so bad for her to have trusted me, I could understand her feelings for secrecy. People don't usually care for champions outside of their region; but when they come around everyone needs to know about it.

She might have also wanted people to think of her as average. That made me admire Ella's humble tones even more; she never bragged at the end of a battle, unless it was with me, and she entertained energetic excitement over her calm and collected battling poise.

I am definitely going to confront Ella about this.

...

"So, Ella, what brings you to Kalos?" Dawn asked her curiously.

Ella had finally stopped feeling tense about encountering Dawn in front of Alain. She had pulled off the stupid lie that Alain was her cousin; and now her and Dawn were admiring a view of the ocean.

"Kalos is... nice," Ella fought to spit out. "And I needed to get away for a while."

"So you came here, eh? You picked a good choice."

"Steven Stone said it would be."

Dawn's eyes lit up. "Steven! You're talking to Steven again?!"

Ella squinted. "Not like that." Unfortunately, none of Ella's friends had forgotten the almost fling between Steven and Ella. A while back, there was a charity thing that the champions of all regions attended. Ella and Steven had connected quickly because they were closer in age, all of the other champions at the time were older. Not that she didn't enjoy Steven's company, but the hints of romantic feelings came all too soon, and Ella wasn't ready for that. However, she would not hold this against Steven. He was a good, nice, smart boy, and his feelings gave Ella no reason to be hostile towards him.

She enjoyed the rest of the charity group with him, and even left him her number. However, no phone calls came from him in the future, just as Ella'd hoped.

"Oh come on, Ella! He's so cute! And he's heir to the Devon Corporation! That's a big deal!" Dawn continued.

"Yeah, he's pretty good looking I guess, but he's just a friend."

"Is your cousin just a friend too?" Dawn asked.

"Well yeah," Ella answered.

"I know he's not your cousin," Dawn shot Ella a small smile. So Ella didn't get away with the lie.

"Maybe he's not my cousin, but he's definitely just a friend."

Dawn simply smiled as she turned her head towards the ocean. "Maybe, but I saw the way you looked at him."

Ella stared at her until she simply shrugged. "I know you, Ella. I saw the way you look at him. You at least admire him, even a little bit."

Dawn was right. Her and Ella have always been good friends. Dawn cheered Ella on the entire way through the Lily of the Valley Conference, the day Ella became Sinnoh's champion. And since then, Ella cheered Dawn on through every contest that she'd participated in.

"I'm kind of surprised you'd even spend your time with a boy," Dawn went on again. "You must find him as a formidable companion. And he's pretty cute too."

A small smile escaped through Ella's lips as she watched the waves pass through the deep blue water.

...

I decided to read through the rest of the _Pokemon Quarterly_ issue while I waited for Ella to come back. I read all about celebrity gossip, supposedly "rigged" Pokemon performance results, and the best way to keep your Pokemon clean or something.

Ella was right though. This shit is garbage.

Except for the article about her. In the middle of the issue, I found an entire page dedicated to her picture. she wore a black lace shirt with a high neckline, and her shiny black hair was in a bun on the top of her head. The amount of makeup applied to her face made her unnoticeable to me, I'm used to her natural face.

In the picture, she held a standard pokeball in her right hand next under her chin.

Looking at the picture of Ella was like looking at a double personality.

The article about her was dedicated to average things foreign people would want to know about a foreign champion. Her childhood life, how her Pokemon journey began, the conference that she'd won the champion title, and other smaller things.

She had rescued a lost and wounded Eevee at the age of 13 who would become her first official Pokemon.

More interestingly, at least to me, was the section of the article where Ella retold the battle of her and her predecessor Cynthia.

How after "what seemed like forever to wear Garchomp out," her Charizard was able to defeat it with a Dragon Claw.

Charizard.

 _Charizard._

Not only had Ella been hiding her title from me, she's been hiding her most reliable Pokemon partner from me as well. Which is the same Pokemon partner as me.

Maybe we're more alike than I'd like to believe. After all, I don't like to tell anyone about myself. Unless they annoy to the point of breaking, but Ella must have more patience than me.

My consciousness went back to the real world when I heard laughter coming from girls.

I looked to my left and saw Ella and Dawn coming back to me. When Ella saw me, her facial expression went harder, but she still smiled at me.

When we met, Dawn told us that she had better get going to teach Kalosians about the contest style performances.

And with that, it was just Ella and me again.

"So, how was it?" I broke the silence.

"Good. We just sat and talked for a while," Ella stared straight ahead. "What did you do?"

"I did some reading," I had been careful to conceal the magazine from Ella, but now I held it up in front of her face. I didn't want her to think I was angry, but I was heavily amused to watch all the color drain from her face.

Ella looked back at the magazine and back at me a few times. She opened her mouth as if she was gonna say something but I cut her off.

"Chill."

"I'm sorry, Alain - truly. I just, I thought about telling you but I just didn't-"

"Didn't what?"

"I didn't want you to think differently of me," she hung her head down.

I put my hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, I'm not angry about that. However, I am angry that I haven't met Charizard yet!"

Ella smiled, and I was relieved. "All right, yeah. I'm definitely guilty of hiding Charizard from you."

"Why did you?"

"Well, here's another surprise. Charizard is my mega partner, and I thought if you saw that you would inquire a battle immediately. I wanted to keep you on your toes for a while," Ella admitted.

"We better have a mega battle someday," I told her.

"Someday," she smiled at me. We held a gaze for a while before Ella took my hands.

Whoa.

"Thank you for understanding. I really appreciate it. And from now on, no more secrets. I swear it," she released her hands from mine, which were still warm from the shock her touch sent through them.

Eager to change the conversation, I remembered the magazine I still held on to.

"Well," I shot her a careless look before a chucked the magazine into the ocean. "It doesn't matter to me, I'm already friends with another champion." I was being sarcastic about my egotistical remark, but Ella didn't acknowledge it.

"And you were right, by the way. That magazine was truly awful. They all should be thrown away," I said.

This time Ella's laugh was louder. "I know, right? Purely terrible. I really do hate them, and not just because they have my picture on them."

I noticed that the sun began to illuminate the sky as orange, and that the waves were rolling back.

"I guess we can head over to the Tower of Mastery now," I said.

"Right. I know Gurkinn very well. Let's go," Ella responded.

We descended down the stairs and onto the sandy beach, which opened up a walkway right to the Tower of Mastery.


	8. Dragonfire

The wet sand stuck to my boots as if they were magnetic as we walked on the newly made path from low tide.

The colossal Tower of Mastery stood right before Ella and I, and I was finally glad to not observe it from the city. They say the first mega evolution happened right here where the Tower now stands. It was a Lucario, and apparently the trainer was a ancestor of Gurkinn's. His family would dedicate their lives to the study and skill of mega evolution, so Gurkinn lived in this tower for students to come and master the art if they wished.

Ella looked around herself and stared out towards the ocean.

"So what is this Gurkinn guy like?" I started the conversation.

"He's... uh, I don't know," Ella muttered. "Okay I guess. He's very wise, but not exactly inviting."

I suppose "inviting" is not the term I would use for him either. As we came closer to the Tower of Mastery, more and more guards around it became visible.

"What's up with all the guards?"

"There's lots of classified information here," Ella told me as she scanned the castle. "Ancient things that have been passed down in his family. And keystones and mega stones. Tons of them. Apparently someone tried to break in once to steal those and sell them on the black market."

I realized that getting in might not be so easy for us anymore. Sure, he knows Ella, but it is me who wants to talk to him. And to just talk to him. And what about?

"Halt! Who goes there?" inquired one of the guards.

"My name is Ella. I am the Champion of the Sinnoh Region. I came with my friend to see Gurkinn."

"What do you need from Gurkinn, Miss Ella?"

"My friend here," she patted me on the shoulder, "he's had a few problems when he tries to use mega evolution. I was hoping Gurkinn could give him some advice."

"Very well." And with that, the guard clapped his hands twice, and the massive gate in front of us slowly rose.

Without taking an eye off the guard, Ella walked forward into the darkness of the Tower.

"I don't need help with mega evolution, thank you very much," I spoke up.

"I know that. And technically you do, you just want to know something different about it," she answered.

I decided not to argue with her logic and kept walking forward until we were in a circular room with a huge statue of a Mega Lucario in front of us. It stood so high that I had to crane my neck to look at the very top of it. A staircase circled around the room, which I assumed led to more rooms throughout the tower. Everything in the room was made completely of stone, save for a lone small door at the base of the statue.

Ella approached the statue and knocked on the wooden door. After a few seconds, an older man with a bald head and overgrown eyebrows appeared. He was wearing a white and red sweatsuit, and he had a discouraging look on his face.

Ella did a small bow and met eyes with the man, who I assumed to be Gurkinn.

"Hello, sir," she started. "If you don't mind, my friend Alain and I have come to speak with you."

"Alain?" Gurkinn said, I was not sure if he was asking for me or asking about me.

"Yes, sir?" I spoke slowly.

"Do you know anything about the ancient language of our people?"

I shook my head.

"Your name - Alain - it comes from Ancient Kalosian."

"I knew that, sir," I said respectfully.

" _Ala_ is the word for 'blue' and _lonne_ is the word for 'storm'. Many ancient people would incorporate 'storm' into their name if they were born around the same time as a storm appeared. Eventually, it became to be abbreviated as _lain_ , simply because it was nicer to write."

"That is very interesting, sir," I spoke to him. I knew my name was ages old, but I never studied language extensively. All of the regions had age-old languages, but know we all speak a common tongue, and I thought that was old that mattered.

"How fitting," Ella chimed in. "Blue storm. With your fierce battling and the blue flames of your Mega Charizard."

I smiled. "Yeah it is. Anyway, Sir Gurkinn, I've come to ask you something."

"Yes?"

"Mega evolution, it omits powerful energy when it occurs. My boss's team has discovered a way to collect it an observe its data."

"And why are you doing this?"

"For peaceful means, he tells me."

"What kind of peaceful means?"

I hesitated. "I don't really know, but I know he plans to use it to help my friend's Chespin recover from a terrible sickness."

My heart sank a little when I realized that was the first time I talked about Mairin in weeks.

"Mhmmm," Gurkinn mumbled. He stood silently as if he were collecting his thoughts. Finally, he spoke again. "Who is this boss you refer to?"

"His name is Lysandre, Gurkinn," I answered.

Gurkinn's distracting eyebrows rose. "Lysandre... the man with the vibrant red hair," he spoke as I nodded to confirm his statement. "You know, in the Sinnoh region," he continued while he turned his head to Ella, "having red hair meant that you were 'kissed by fire.'"

Ella smiled. "Yes! People in Sinnoh still believe in that."

"Is that a bad thing?" I asked.

"It means you have ambition. Whether that it a bad thing or not, only actions will tell," Gurkinn responded.

"Well, he asked me to ask you how to convert the energy. To make it useful."

"Mega evolution energy can be harvested. My personal studies have shown that it can be contained in a compressed magnetic field. But if the magnetic field is ruptured by an outside force..." he trailed off.

"Then what?" I urged him.

"It becomes more dangerous than any weapon. Think off the power a Pokemon obtains it its mega evolution form. All of that raw power, protruding out of a container, all in uniform and looking for a target."

"Humans cannot put their bodies under that kind of stress like Pokemon can," Ella said. "Our bodies aren't as strong as theirs. If mega evolution energy became a weapon, people would die. I don't think Lysandre is up to that."

"Maybe not," Gurkinn had said before he stopped to listen to a low rumbling sound on the stairs.

All of a sudden, a young girl with long blonde hair jumped down from the stairs and landed right in front of us. She was on roller skates, and her hair was tucked under a helmet. She wore a tank top and skirt with a design scheme similar to her grandfather's. I soon recognized the young girl to be Korrina, Gurkinn's granddaughter and the Shalour City gym leader.

"Hey, Ella!" Korrina shouted.

"Hi," was all Ella responded with.

"So who's your friend here?" Korrina asked.

"This is Alain," she answered with waving her hand at me.

"Alain! What a nice name, you know, it Ancient Kalosian it means-"

"Yeah, we know," Ella turned her head to Gurkinn. "Thank you very much. I think we found out all we needed to know. We'll be leaving now."

I was glad that Ella urged to leave, because I wanted to leave to. Not only did Gurkinn offer me nothing for my boss, he accused him of being a criminal, and that kind of pisses me off.

"Why such a hurry? Are you sticking around for the night? Go out and venture, the city comes alive at night! I can accompany you around if you like," Korrina offered while staring straight at me.

"No thank you, we're fine," Ella said flatly as she grabbed my arm. "Thank you again, Gurkinn, I'll see you around sometime."

I turned around and shook my arm from Ella's grasp, which she didn't fight against. The gateway was dimly lit by the sunset as we walked out of the Tower of Mastery.

"Why such a change in your mood?" I asked Ella.

"I don't like her," Ella responded quietly as she observed the guards.

"Why not?"

"Okay, so there was this charity event in Johto one time. It was one of the first major things I got to do as a champion. All of the champions were invited to attend. It was like a junior battle, like a tournament except not all eight badges were required. And all you got for winning was a pat on the back sort of thing, you know?"

"Okay," I followed with her.

"Well, Gurkinn gets invited to them too, because he's such an influential person in the world of Pokemon battles, and he brought her along. Also, my friend Steven, who is the champion in Hoenn, brought along his friend Wallace. Wallace is kind of a somebody as well, he's Top Coordinator in Hoenn, he was champion for a while, but now he's just Sootopolis' gym leader. Anyway, Korrina and Wallace spent the whole week together. She admitted feelings for him and everything seemed to be going well for them, until she came back to Kalos only to date the Grant guy."

"The Cyllage City gym leader?!" I wasn't one for gossip, but damn.

"Yeah. That's why I didn't care to watch the bike race that day. I don't have time for people like them. And then the way she was looking and you... just, ugh," Ella rolled her eyes and shrugged.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked. "Why do you care?" I raised my voice to a light mocking tone and raised my eyebrows.

"I don't."

"Right."

By then we were back at the mainland of the city. Korrina was right - the city does come alive at night. Everyone was rustling about, street vendors were crawling around like crazy, and every street had a different musician playing on the street.

My mesmerization was ended by the rumbles of my stomach. Ella turned to me and laughed.

"Are you hungry? Let's go find somewhere to eat."

We walked up a set of steps and glanced down the streets for a place. Her eyes lit up as she ran over to a city directory.

"There! Let's go there!" Ella pointed to a place on the directory. We walked calmly through the streets to the place. Ella kept her head turned from me and she didn't try to speak to me. I kept my eyes on her for a while until I decided to break the silence.

"Cinderella, is there someone you're looking for?" I smiled as I used the name she hated so well.

She still didn't look at me. "No, I'm just thinking."

"Don't hurt yourself."

Now she looked at me with a piercing glare. "Stop it. I'm just thinking about when I was younger. I volunteered to do summer work at the resort area in Sinnoh, everything in that place looked exactly like this. And I thought to myself, that one day, I would live in a place like this."

"So do you?"

"Yeah. But I have a private place in Twinleaf Town, away from all the ruckus. Sometimes I need it."

The restaurant was finally in our view, and based on the looks of it, it had to be ridiculously expensive.

"Uh, Ella, maybe we should just go to the Pokemon center."

She shook her head. "No, I owe it to you, after sort of lying for so long."

It was called _Dame de la Mer_. Blue lights illuminated the outside of the restaurant. When we walked inside, we were surprised that they could seat us right away. It was only one giant room with probably fifty chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. The tables were donned in blue cloths, and the floor was completely dark marble.

Our meals weren't what interested me; however, it was the look on all the richer and elder people's faces when two dirty kids sat down in casual clothing at this restaurant.

"All right," Ella laughed. "Maybe we didn't dress the part. But the food's good."

I laughed with her until I heard the sound of silverware clanging on glass. It came from a member of the orchestra on the stage. "Time for dancing!"

"Time to go," Ella and I said in unison. We shot each other a confused look as she placed a huge pile of money on the table, and we left.

On our way out a patron yelled at us. "Champion Ella! Why didn't you tell the world about your boyfriend? He's really cute!"

"He's not my boyfriend!" Ella yelled back.

I had to laugh a little. And I admit, I was a little bit flattered. Ella was a beautiful girl, but on top of that she was brilliant, and happy, and one of the greatest battlers I've seen. To be worthy to someone like her...

"Alain?"

I snapped out of my daze.

"Yeah?"

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing, I was just. Thinking."

"Did you hurt yourself?"

"Maybe." I smiled as we began to walk towards the Pokemon Center.

"Ugh, finally! I've been dying to go to this place and just lay in bed!" Ella announced.

"You go ahead in," I told her. "I'm going to call Lysandre."

Ella sheepishly nodded once as she opened the door.

I pulled out my Holocaster, but I fell to the ground when something hit my face. I tasted blood in my mouth as I tried to get back up.

"Little man," a low, raspy voice spoke. "Hand over the keystone."

When my vision refocused, I looked up to see a large, muscular man with a scarred face looking down at me. In his hands was a gold card, a token that all mercenaries carry.

"What if I refuse?" I asked bravely.

"Then I'll have to take it by force, and make my work dirty."

"Then do it." I would not give up my keystone to anyone. It already meant to much to me and my mission.

"Let my strike you a deal kid," the mercenary started. "Give me the keystone, and I'll walk away. If you don't, I'll have to dispose of you, and then I'll make a work of art of that little champion you follow around."

The heat in my body increased, but I would still not give in. I rose quickly to my feet, and he grabbed me by the shirt.

"Stop."

We both turned our heads to see Ella standing in front of us.

The mercenary smiled. "Good. Now I don't have to find you. Doing the work for me."

Ella smiled back. "Your work here is done."

In the night, I heard a change in the wind pattern. Soon I heard wings flapping. A distant, black figure circled above the three of us in the skies, and by the silhouette I noticed who it was.

 _Charizard_.

Her Charizard lowered itself down and floated right about Ella. I noticed that the mercenary's grip on me had lessened considerably so I got away and stood in the alley.

"Look, you bitch," he shouted. "My buyer wants that keystone of his. And if I can get that, then this buyer will pay a pretty penny for you, ruined or not. So I will do this job or I will die trying!"

"So you will."

The look in Charizard's eyes grew meaner, and it began to flap it's wings even harder.

" _Dracafare,_ " Ella stated.

Charizard unleashed a mighty Flamethrower on the man. However, the entire thing did not hit him. He caught the tail end, and it left a large portion of his body burned.

Ella approached him as he laid on the ground screaming. "Go. Tell your buyer what happened when you tried to harm us."

The mercenary scrambled away, and Ella looked at me with a concerned look.

"Alain!" She rushed over to me and gave me a warm embrace. "Alain. Your face. It's covered in blood. Did he hit you? We have to clean you up."

"He was a mercenary," I said, as my vision got blurry again. "He wanted my keystone... and he.. wanted you.. why?"

"I don't know," Ella answered. She put my arm around her neck and helped me to the Pokemon Center.

"How could he know us... who would want to harm us?"

"I don't know."

"But..." I couldn't manage any more words as my vision went black.


	9. Dissevered

I swore I could feel a weight pressing down on me.

As I gained my consciousness, I realized I was lying in a bed, probably in the Pokemon Center. I had a difficult time opening my eyes due to the harsh sunlight beaming in the window, so I guessed it was already afternoon.

Ella was sitting next to my bed in a sofa chair. At first, she was too consumed by a book she was reading, but she diverted her attention when she noticed I was awake.

"Alain! How are you feeling?"

"Exhausted," I breathed while I sat my head up and squinted at her. "Are we at the Pokemon Center?"

"Yes," she responded while she sat her book on a table. "Your head was bleeding, like really bad. Nurse Joy called a human doctor she knows, and he came here and gave you stitches, so try to take it easy."

"Well, thank you for helping me," I said. "Can you tell me what happened again?"

Ella shrugged. "I walk in here to check us in, and then I went back outside to tell you which room was yours, but you were on the ground and some guy was ready to attack you. After I intervened, I learned that he was a mercenary. I don't know what came over me, but I knew I couldn't take him on myself. So prior to my intervention, I let out my own Charizard to sort of intimidate him."

"But he still stayed. I remember, he was so determined..."

"I know. That's why I had Charizard shoot a Flamethrower at him. I had intended it to hit him just a little bit, but I burned him more than I originally hoped. He still ran after that, so I guess I'm not worried," Ella said, with a light laugh following.

"Flamethrower? You didn't say that. You said something, something else I didn't recognize."

Ella let out another light laugh. "Yeah, what I said was _dracafare._ It's Ancient Sinnovian for 'dragonfire.' I guess Gurkinn's language lesson inspired me. That's why I dug out this old thing. It's my book on our ancient language." She held up her book for me to see.

"That's actually kind of interesting," I told her. "So you've been studying the language?"

"Well, just recently, yes. But I've known our traditions since I was very young. You see," she smiled, and looked up at nothing. "The people, they didn't worship gods, no human-like deities. They worshipped dragons. The Three Dragon Gods of Sinnoh. Dialga, the one who created time. Palkia, the one who created space. And Giratina, the one who brought evil and chaos to the new world, and who triggered Arceus' coming."

"Arceus'... _coming?"_

"Yes. Upon the evil's beginning, Arceus came to the new world, and used its power to banish Giratina to the Shadow World. Since then, people believe that they see Giratina in cemeteries and other forsaken places."

"I've... I've never heard Sinnoh's creation story told like that before," I admitted.

"It's the only way to tell it. Afterwards," Ella continued, "Arceus came back to the new world created by Dialga and Palkia. With their assistance, Arceus created all beings, humans and Pokemon alike, and gave the spirit of law to the land. After that, they descended to another dimension, where they would watch and protect the new world together. Quite a fascinating story to tell."

"It is indeed."

"And you know, people believed that Arceus had the form of a dragon before it sacrificed its powers to our new world. That's why dragons were worshipped in Ancient Sinnoh. And since then, dragons have always been valued. Other types of Pokemon were accepted and celebrated; however, dragons were extremely significant."

"Really?"

"Yes. Many trainers from Sinnoh dream to train a dragon type Pokemon. However, as you may know, that can be difficult."

"You're telling me," I rubbed my head. "I only have a dragon type half of the time."

Ella looked at her hands. "Yeah, and that's why most of the best trainers from Sinnoh have dragon types. Like Cynthia's Garchomp. I have several dragon types myself."

"Did the ancient people train dragons?" I asked.

"They tried. Training Pokemon wasn't so easy back then. And if we think training dragons is a pain in the ass now..." Ella trailed off while laughing.

I laughed with her. "But there had to be a few exceptions."

"And there were. The people who could successfully train a dragon gained the highest rank in the society. The other people were bewildered by their talents that they actually believed these people had the spirits of a dragon inside them."

"That they were dragons themselves?"

"I suppose. But I don't know for sure. You know, if you're that interested, you should visit Solaceon Town in Sinnoh. They have museums and libraries that will tell you all about this," Ella remarked.

I was too transfixed on Ella's story to acknowledge her remark. "So wait, did these people say _dracafare?"_

"Yes, they did. The ones who could train the dragons used it to encourage them to breathe fire. As we know now, a lot of dragons can breathe fire. But today, we call out this move as 'Flamethrower'. Its been used less and less over time."

"Why did you say it yesterday?" I asked.

"I don't know," she spoke softly, as if deep in thought. "I don't know what came over me. I felt so powerful, and so enraged. It just seemed right."

"I can see why you'd be so angry," I said. "That guy said he had a buyer who wanted him to bring you to them. As well as my keystone, too."

"I know."

"But who would want you? I mean, you're a champion, but who would pay someone to find you? The same person who wants my keystone?"

Ella remained silent.

I waited a while for a response, but since I didn't get one I shifted in the bed and sat up, with my feet now on the floor.

She looked up at me with a painful expression on her face.

"Ella?"

"I think I know who would send him."

"Like who?"

Ella hesitated again. She looked around the room, as if stalling on purpose.

"Ella. Tell me."

"I think your boss sent him," she said to the floor.

A flare of emotions ran through me. Surprise, anger, and confusion.

"Why do you think that?" I asked her sternly.

"You said it yourself, you haven't been on top of your mission. I'm sure Lysandre knows that, that's probably why the mercenary wanted the keystone."

"Lysandre wouldn't do that to me. He knows I have too much at stake. And anyway, what would Lysandre want with you?" I stared at her with fierce eyes.

But she never returned my gaze. "Maybe he thinks I'm a threat to you. To you and your mission. And his mission."

"Lysandre is striving for peace. There's no way you'd interfere with that," I retorted quickly.

"Oh yeah? Like what kind of peace, Alain? Tell me! Does peace mean a little girl sits in a hospital with her comatose Pokemon for the rest of her life?!" she shouted, and this time she stared right at me.

My face set a hard expression. "Don't you dare," I said boldly.

"Maybe you haven't been on top of your mission as of recently, but I know you were before. All this data, all this energy, Alain- where is it going?"

"I am doing what's right. For myself and everyone I care about," I told her. "Whatever else Lysandre and his team does, it can't be my concern."

"I wouldn't say that."

"And why not?!" I was getting annoyed and furious with her.

"Alain... I know about everything. I know you know Steven Stone. And I know about the Groudon, Kyogre, and Rayquaza incident. I know about the megalith. And... and I know why Mairin's Chespin is comatose."

I widened my eyes, but I refused to let my guard down.

"What do you know about it?"

Ella sighed, and turned to pick her tablet off the table. "I got this email from Steven this morning," she said solemnly and handed me the device.

I read the email extensively. First, Steven told her that he had infiltrated Team Flare's archives and security footage. He said that he had found a video of Mairin's Chespin interrupting an experiment referred to as 'Experiment Z' in the archives. The radiation omitted during said experiment must be too strong for Chespin's body, and that's why it is comatose, or so Steven theorized. The experiment was meant to be conducted on a mysterious larvae Pokemon of unknown species. Apparently, it can change form, but the Team doesn't know why, and they were determined to figure it out. In the email, Steven said the archives contained the mechanical maps of the machines used in the experiments. And they ran on mega evolution energy. Steven also theorized that the mega evolution energy would trigger the reaction in the larvae and cause it to change form, like mega evolution energy does to many other Pokemon.

"I suppose you might have guess where we think the mega evolution energy comes from..." Ella said solemnly.

No. This isn't happening. I refused to let her destroying everything I knew.

 _Or I thought I knew_.

I shoved the tablet back into her arms. "Why do you two talk about this?!"

"Alain, I have to tell you why I'm here."

"Go on. I'm waiting."

"Steven... Steven told me to come to Kalos."

"And why is that?"

"To find you."

"To find _me?_ "

"To find you and help you."

"I don't need your help."

"Alain, you're corrupted. You don't realize it, but you are. Lysandre gives you this mission and tells you its for 'peaceful means,' or ambiguous goals. It is right there in front of you, Alain. He's using you for his own sick goals. Who knows what he wants to do with this larvae thing!"

I started to walk away from her.

"Alain, Mairin's been sitting with that poor Pokemon for months and nothing has happened. Absolutely nothing. You've been out here, battling like crazy for nothing. Lysandre's using Mairin to keep you motivated!"

"Stop!" I waved a finger at her. "You don't really know me, you don't know what I want. You don't know what I plan to do."

"You're out here fighting for who you care for. You just don't realize you're set up to lose the fight, no matter what you do."

I tensed, but I knew what I had to do.

"I'll keep losing if I stay with you," I said emotionlessly and turned for the door.

"Alain, no! Please! Just listen to me!" Ella ran towards me.

"I don't need to listen to you! I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to go out there, fight for what I believe in for everyone I care for. And _you're not one of them_."

With that, I slammed the door and stormed out of the Pokemon Center as fast as I could with no words.

Ella stood in the room, with the sound of a slamming door ringing in her ears. The silence made her tense, and the newfound loneliness in the room choked her. Eventually, tears formed in her eyes and fell to the floor between choked sobs.


	10. The Violet Ghost

_This can't be happening._

Ella looked aimlessly at the far away ground while she attempted to collect her thoughts.

 _My mission was not to just help him,_ she thought to herself. _But to stop this evilness from taking over Kalos._

Kalos wasn't a region that Ella had to particularly worry about, because she was the reigning champion over Sinnoh. However, over the last few months things slowly began to change for her.

She had met a boy. At first, he was only part of her mission. _Break his walls and open him to the truth._

But then he became a friend. _Show him the path to truth through the bonds of friendship._

But then he became more than just a friend. He became the only person she would care about.

 _And that's when I knew I could fail._

Ella played her confrontation scenario in her head over and over. She imagined Alain reacting coldly, but she never thought he would abandon her.

He was a stranger, then a friend, then a stranger again.

Of course, she had mistakenly brought up Mairin. Ella knew that Alain wanted to help her and her Pokemon more than anything, and Ella would never stand in his way. She didn't quite understand the bond that he shared with Mairin, but Ella did understand that any kind of bond should never be broken. At least, not broken by an outsider.

That's probably what sent his anger out so quickly. Helping this little girl was his main priority all while proving he was the strongest trainer. Ella knew that proving yourself the strongest wasn't easy, so it didn't surprise her that Alain claimed the help when it reached out.

Only it had been from Lysandre, who gave Alain a keystone and Charizard's mega stone in return for his service. Under Lysandre's commands, Alain would travel the region looking for the strongest mega trainers and conquering them, all while collecting mega evolution energy.

 _I want to know what Lysandre told him the mega evolution energy was for in the first place, before Mairin's Chespin was sick._

Ella had known for sure that Lysandre was evil, and that his use of the mega evolution energy was evil. Once Ella figured out that Lysandre's source of mega evolution energy was Alain, she never believed that he wanted to help Mairin. Not once.

Since then, Ella had been disturbed that this man would allow a poor, helpless young girl sit in his laboratory with her comatose Pokemon, that will probably never wake up unless it gets what it needs, while he let her friend and guardian journey all over the region to help his crooked goals come to life.

Ella's mouth curled at the thought of the man. She had never met Lysandre and she already hated him. He reminded her too much of Cyrus... organizing an evil team of scientists to summon Dialga and Palkia... to create a new dimension and become the god...

 _Thank Arceus Cynthia and I showed up..._

Ella's rising heart rate forced her to push these memories back into the deepest parts of her mind. But one obsolete memory lingered: Cyrus' mission was called Experiment Galactic. And it triggered her brain to think about Experiment Z.

 _What is Experiment Z supposed to be anyway?_

Her thoughts were broken by her whimpering Charizard, who flew underneath her. As Ella remerged into reality, she remembered she was flying high in the sky.

"Sorry, boy," she muttered. "Fly lower."

Her Charizard descended, and Ella could faintly see Laverre City in the distance. Recently, she had learned through the grapevine that Team Flare, the official name for Lysandre's puppets, had infiltrated the Pokeball Factory right outside the city, and Ella thought she could learn something about them there. She asked Charizard to land in Laverre when an idea struck her.

 _I think it's time to talk to Steven._

The rest of her flight was pretty eventless. She focused her thoughts on what she would say to Steven, and she decided to wait to break the news that Alain wasn't with her anymore. At least, she would wait until she got her answers from him.

Charizard landed in this swampy section just outside of Laverre City. The actual city was so crowded and bustling with people that landing there would have been difficult. Laverre originally started as a city of mystery, but has turned into a fashion city with the arrival of Valerie- Laverre City's gym leader.

"Good boy," Ella praised as she stroked Charizard's neck. She lifted Charizard's pokeball and a beam of bright red led encapsulated Charizard in the red and white ball.

Ella tucked the pokeball back on her belt and pulled out a small yellow device from her bag. It was a Pokenav, a device for trainers in the Hoenn region, and it was developed by Steven's dad's company, the Devon Corporation. Steven had sent it to her so they could communicate easier about their secretive mission. And Ella had been successful at receiving it on the sly, without Alain noticing. She set her bag on a nearby log and looked at the device.

 _I hate this fucking thing,_ she thought to herself and she attempted to figure out the functions.

She held the device to her ear when she was certain that it would contact Steven.

"Hello?" a voice on the other end called.

"Hey, Steven," Ella responded. "It's me, Ella."

"Ella? How are things?"

"Okay I guess," Ella paced around the swamp, trying not to get her boots wet. Since she had left Shalour, she changed into black leather boots, with black trousers, and a black leather jacket. Her long, wavy, black hair had been collected into a braid going down her back.

"Are you okay?" Steven asked.

"Yeah I'm fine," Ella picked up her head and took on a more pleasant demeanor. "Just trying to lay low. I wanted to ask you about something."

"What is it?"

"Experiment Z... what do you know about it? Like, what's it on?"

Steven responded with a heavy breath inward. "That has been puzzling me. Apparently, Lysandre's team discovered a new species of Pokemon. They don't know anything about it- species, type, nothing. All they know is that it can change form."

"How so?"

"According to the archives, the Pokemon is just a small green thing that bounces around on a tail. When it transforms, it's completely taken over by flashes of green light that come out of the Earth. And then, its got a whole new look."

"That's interesting. And they think the green light is lingering mega evolution energy?" Ella asked.

"They at least think mega evolution energy triggers it," Steven responded. "So far, I don't think their tests have had good results. The subject they had disappeared when Mairin's Chespin intervened. However, there is another one."

"Another Pokemon like that?"

"Yeah, and as of now, they are both free in the wilderness. I think they've put experimenting on hold to recover them."

"Okay. I think that's all I wanted to know. Thanks, Steven," Ella went to hang up the Pokenav.

"How is he?"

"Alain?"

"Who else?" Ella could tell Steven was trying to be sarcastic. _His personality is too dry._

"He's... he's good," Ella hesitated.

"Okay, and how about you?"

"I'm okay, I guess. Just trying to keep on. I'm not sure if I can convince him."

"Yes you can. I asked you to do this because I had no doubt you would fail."

 _Oh, Steven. Maybe you're not so smart after all._

"I have doubts. I told him about Lysandre's plans and he didn't believe me."

"Don't lose faith in yourself. You've got an unbreakable spirit. You've proved it so many time, Miss Ella Dracanima."

"Thanks, dude," Ella smirked. "I gotta go."

Steven only laughed and then hung up. Ella lowered the device from her ear and looked at it for a while.

 _"You've got an unbreakable spirit_." The words rung in her head while she entered the gates of Laverre City.

 _The first thing I will do here is get my team back_.

Ella stomped to the Pokemon Center. The people of Laverre were familiar with foreigners, so she caught the stares of citizens who'd recognized her. But she didn't give them the time of day.

In the Pokemon Center, she scurried over to the transporter and typed in her Trainer ID.

After small awkward talk with Professor Rowan, she had received her team again: Charizard, Garchomp, Dragonite, Salamence, Umbreon, and her new companion, Bulbasaur. Ella smiled at the pokeballs she sported on her belt. She had missed her dragons. She opted to leave them with the professor as to keep a low profile from Alain.

As Ella walked over to Nurse Joy, she realized she'd left her bag on the log in the swamp. So Ella walked back out the gates and into the swamp right where her bag was.

Ella fastened the bag around her hips, and headed for the city again.

"You do have an unbreakable spirit, Miss Ella," a creepy voice called from the shadows.

Ella whipped her head around, and her heart rate rose.

"Who are you?" she called to the voice.

"I am no one," the cracking voice answered. "At least, my identity isn't important."

"Don't talk to me." Ella tried to get away.

"I know your future, Miss Ella. You miss that boy, don't you? That boy's going to be your demise."

" _You don't know me._ "

"Of course I do." And then, the fortune teller from Coumarine City appeared. Despite her tired voice, she was a young girl, with dark scraggly hair around her face and wore a long purple trench-coat.

Ella paused, wanting to confide with the creepy woman. "What do you mean demise?"

"You're the catch. He's the bait. Know the trap."

Ella was outraged. Even though Alain may not be happy with her right now, Ella knew he would not let her suffer.

"You don't know that." Ella held the creepy woman's gaze.

"And you think you know it all. You've been through so much- but this is a big world, Ella. There's much more than you know about."

Ella paused, then nodded her head. "Like what?"

The creepy woman said nothing. Instead, she removed a necklace from her neck that consisted of a large band that held an enormous black stone. Once the necklace was removed, the young girl had become a haggard old woman. The wrinkles on her skin made it impossible to look into her eyes, and her hair was so gray and scraggly that it shaped her face like a wildfire.

Ella's eyes widened and she put her hands on her mouth to suppress a scream. She started backing away slowly until she could see light from the city behind her.

The fortune teller's menacing laugh made Ella's blood curdle as she ran for Laverre City.


	11. Ella Sees Fire

Ella had ran back into Laverre City with full speed. She stopped in front of the Pokemon Center, and leaned forward to catch her breath. She picked up her head and looked at all the townspeople who were walking about, as if nothing strange or creepy has ever happened to them.

By now, Ella wanted to believe Alain when he said fortune tellers were a waste of time. But after watching one transform from a young pale woman to an old haggard witch, Ella figured out that wasting her time with fortune tellers isn't what she should be worried about.

 _But what she said..._ The words still rung in Ella's ears. _You're the catch. He's the bait._

Ella figured out that the "he" in the fortune tellers premonition referred to Alain. After all, he's the only male in the region she's made a close friendship with.

 _He's the only male in any region I've made a close friendship with..._

Ella shook her head to keep herself on track.

 _So Alain is the bait. But what for?_

Ella spent quite awhile trying to figure out what the fortune teller truly meant with her words. But every time Ella thought she came close to a solid theory, she concluded it as a flop.

Stumped, Ella decided to head towards the Pokeball Factory again, to see what the workers knew. She knew about Team Flare's recent infiltration attempt there, so she scurried past all the sights and sounds of the enchanting city.

From the corner of her eye, Ella saw a man descending towards the city on a Pidgeot. He landed in a small open field, with his eyes fixated on something Ella couldn't see. Immediately, a woman ran over to him and took him in for a tight embrace.

"I've missed you so much!" the woman exclaimed.

"I missed you too," the man said, kissing the woman's forehead. He returned his valiant Pidgeot and slipped the pokeball back in his bag. But instead of pulling his hand out of the bag empty handed, he pulled out a beautiful bouquet of Gracidea flowers.

"It's a tradition in Sinnoh," the man began. "The giving of Gracidea flowers for gratitude of special occasions."

"Oh, honey, I know you're returning home, but you go on trips to Sinnoh all the time. What is the special occasion?" the woman asked.

"The special occasion is marriage. I want to marry you. I love you dearly, and if you allow me," he paused to hold up an immaculate diamond ring. "I'll always be here for you."

The woman didn't really respond. Instead, she frantically jumped up and down and burst into crying sobs, which Ella and everyone around her assumed was a yes.

Ella watched the entire proposal as she walked ahead to the factory.

It was sweet, of course, but sometimes Ella couldn't tolerate public affection. Dawn used to tell her it was because she never had someone to be affectionate with. And though Dawn was right, Ella had no desire to hold someone's hand in the Pokemart or kiss them on the Sunyshore Bridge.

 _If I ever find someone, we won't be like that. We'll be adventurous, and fierce battlers, and everyone would envy our wanderer's spirit and power in battle._ She thought to herself.

Her thoughts immediately took her to her memories of Alain. The random double battle on their first day together, the time she ran off from their campsite to get Mareep wool and make Alain a new scarf, to the time they went to dinner at a five star restaurant completely dirty.

Ella smiled, because she was fond of these memories. Although Alain was probably mad at her, and hasn't made any attempt to contact her in the past few weeks, she couldn't help but find herself to always be longing for his presence again.

 _You should have told him you liked him, then,_ her mind spoke to her.

Ella shook her head again, clearing herself from any thought process, and stomped straight to the Pokeball Factory. Just then, she received an email on her Pokenav.

When she opened the email, she was delighted to see that it had been sent by Diantha, the Kalos Champion:

 _Hey, Champions! I hope you all are doing well. As you know, this year's Kalos League is approaching faster than expected, and it is going to be the largest one in twenty years! As part of my gratitude to you all, and part of my excitement, I wish to cordially invite you all to witness this year's Kalos League._

"Cool," Ella talked to herself. "Good thing I'm already here."

Farther north, on the very outskirts of Laverre City sat the Pokeball Factory. Before Ella were wide, stone steps with Pokeball statues lining each side. Ella still couldn't see the Factory from the bottom of the steps, so she hastily trudged up them.

Her journey was cut short, however, when she caught sight of a group of people in ugly red uniforms. She recognized them immediately as Team Flare members, because she had seen them come up on Alain's Holocaster so many times. That, and once you've seen an outfit like that, you don't forget it. Ever.

Ella stopped at a dead halt on the stairs. She assumed that none of the grunts saw her, because they hadn't reacted to her yet. Nevertheless, she hid behind one of the statues for cover. With her back pressed against it, she turned her head around and observed the evil group with suspicious eyes.

From her position, Ella could see that the Team Flare members had traveled to the factory in a matching red van. The grunts were just standing around aimlessly, as if they were waiting for something to happen.

And just like that, the passenger side door flew open, and a short, pale, hideous man stepped out.

He wore a red suit, donned with white decorations, to signify that he was a higher ranked member of Team Flare. He had no hair but a tuft of red on top of his head, and he wore laboratory goggles with red lens over his eyes. He neither smiled or frowned when he approached the other members.

"So," he began, with a higher pitched voice than expected. "Did you get what I needed?"

"Yes sir." One of the grunts stepped out and handed him something that Ella couldn't see.

"And this microchip contains the data to make the ultimate capturing equipment?" he asked again. His voice sent chills through Ella's spine.

"Yes sir."

He didn't respond to the grunt. He turned around a retrieved something from his pocket.

A Holocaster. Exactly's identical to Alain's.

Shortly, the Holocaster would display an image to the man. Ella couldn't make it out from afar, but one the receiver of the call spoke, she knew it was none other than Lysandre. Team Flare's ring leader.

"Sir," the man began. "We have retrieved the data to make the best Pokemon capsule."

"Good. Report back to headquarters immediately to start on the process. We were lucky enough to capture Z2, but we are afraid Z1 will be much more difficult," Lysandre said.

"Aaaahhh!" the man exclaimed in a tone that was enough to turn any heavenly dream into a psychotic nightmare. "So we've retrieved one!"

"Yes, thanks to the massive wave of mega evolution energy we've received from Alain."

Ella tensed at the sound of his name, but continued listening intently.

"As I expected," the man snickered. "We'll be seeing much more of that, now that she's gone."

"I hope she's gone," Lysandre responded. "I have reasons to suspect that she stands against us. She tried to tell Alain that we use the mega evolution energy for evil."

"Oh, it's not evil." The man paused, and slowly showed a creepy, toothy smile. "It's just moral."

Ella heard Lysandre's low, haunting laugh.

"Alain has been collecting gym badges around the region, you know," Lysandre broke the silence. "He took the advice from some young trainer, who claimed that all the strongest trainers in Kalos will compete in the League."

 _The League?! Alain's going to compete at the League? And I have to watch?_

Her attention was diverted back to the Holocaster call when the man spoke.

"That could be bad," he said. "It may once again take his attention away from us."

"Agreed," Lysandre responded. "That's why I've taken the opportunity to call him back here. I will not let him leave. Instead, I supposed I'll start inviting trainers again."

"And what about the little girl?"

"We'll let her keep believing until it's heart gives out."

"You know Alain won't be happy about that. What are you going to do about him?"

"By that time we probably won't have any use of him anymore. We'll let the flames consume him first."

Ella flared with anger, the heat boiled in her body, and her hands wanted to lunge out at the man.

"Very well. Shall I take care of the Factory?"

"Yes," Lysandre responded, and the call was over.

The man looked over at one of the grunts, who pulled out a small control with one button on top. After he pushed it, he called out to the man that it was "detonated."

 _Oh my Arceus. Holy shit. It's a bomb._

The grunts and the weird man quickly scurried in the van, and Ella dove out of her hiding place and ran. The van speeded in a direction perpendicular to her, so she didn't worry about blowing her cover.

The automatic doors to the factory flew open, and Ella looked around at the seemed to be deserted factory. The belts were moving, but there were no pokeballs on them. And there were no workers observing anything.

"If anyone is in here, you need to get out of here!" she screamed.

There was no response.

"Your lives are in danger! I'm serious!"

Eventually, the room clouded in a thick, dark smoke. After a few short breaths, the smoke began to choke Ella, and she recognized it as an incapacitating agent.

Unwilling to let the gas take its effect, she turned around and faced the entrance doors. With a ton of effort, Ella was able to stumble out of the Pokeball Factory, and collapsed to her knees on the pavement outside.

She put her hands on the ground and heaved in huge breaths. Her vision was blurry, but after a while it began to clear.

Then, the red van drove back and stopped right in front of her.

Ella would have run if she were not too exhausted from the gas.

She saw the mysterious man get out of the van and make his way toward her. He kneeled so that he could grab her face, pushing his thumb and index finger firmly against her jaws, thus forcing her to look at him.

His grunts stood behind him. "It's the Sinnoh bitch," one of them behind him muttered.

"So it is," he said flatly. "You have intervened for the last time."

The man released her, and Ella couldn't find the strength to keep her head up. The lingering effects of the gas lulled her to sleep with every second.

But the man didn't know that. "We are taking her with us." He turned and nodded at another grunt.

The grunt nodded, and walked toward her. All of the other followed the man back into the van.

With every drop of strength she could muster, Ella put her head up to look at the grunt. But that was short lived, because her face was met with his fist, and it was enough to knock Ella completely unconscious.


	12. The Perfect and the Good

"Sir, the preparations are almost complete."

Ella consciousness came back to her slowly; her eyes were feeling numb and the air-conditioned room made her fingers cold. The fuzziness slowly faded into clarity, and Ella began to realize her predicament.

She was in a room, probably a laboratory, donned with red walls and black floors. The floor had a higher level, where she sat, and a lower level where all the experiments probably occurred. On the higher ground, and right in front of her, was a control panel. The laboratory seemed to be very state of the art; but for some reason, torches on pedestals lined the room as if it didn't have lighting. However, the lights were dimmed to be very dark. Ella noted that it gave the room an eerie feel to it.

Then Ella realized her own situation. She was on the ground, on her knees. Her hands hung above her, crossed at the wrists around a silver rail that was mounted on the red wall. Ella tried to pull her hands down, put a sharp pain ran to her carpals as small plastic wires dug into her skin.

... _Zip ties?_

At the control panel stood two men. One was the man she had seen at the Pokeball Factory, the one who was talking on the phone. The other, with blazing red hair that devilish blue eyes jumped out from, was none other than Lysandre himself. They had yet to notice Ella's awareness, so she laid low to hear the rest of a possibly vital conversation.

"Excellent work, Xerosic. I'm glad I decided to let Alain continue to collect gym badges. I never realized Gurkinn's young granddaughter would use her Mega Evolved Pokemon in a gym battle," Lysandre said in his deep, frightening voice.

"Yes, truly a surprise," the man who was now revealed to be Xerosic replied. "It makes are mission go even faster!"

Lysandre laughed slowly. "Yes, all for our mission... it's a shame that he still believes he's helping a little girl."

"Whatever keeps him motivated," Xerosic stated with a creepy high-pitched laugh. "But what shall we do with them after the mission commences?"

Lysandre closed his eyes. "I have no need for them in my new world."

"Good thing he didn't listen to that pathetic woman back there," Xerosic said. "She complicates things."

"Yes she does."

Ella fumed, her anger fueled by pity and sadness for Mairin as well as a strong desire to reach out to Alain. She wanted to keep sitting there and listening to their conversation, but she knew she could not sit idly by while they plotted to actually kill people.

"I'm a woman. That's what I do," Ella joked. "I complicate things."

"Ahhhh, you're awake," Lysandre said, not surprised at Ella's sudden entrance.

"Where's Alain?!" She asked.

"Roaming Kalos. He's fine, but we're glad our threats lured you in."

 _Ah. I'm the catch. And he's the bait._

"You know, Lysandre, for someone so invested in their company, I thought you could acquire better restraints that zip ties," Ella commented, pumping her hands to show them.

"They certainly keep you immobile," he responded. "And besides, we wanted you to have a front row seat of when we create our new world." Lysandre raised his hands, which brought Ella's attention to the giant television screen on the other side of the room.

It began to show several different experiments on the Zygarde Core, the videos looked a lot like the ones Steven found in their archives. She watched as Zygarde cells were shot with a bright beam that flashed red. And all of a sudden, Team Flare was standing on an overgrown island.

Next showed a large submarine in a vast ocean, which shot up and captured a shining megalith suspended in the air. As the camera panned up, Ella saw Rayquaza, a dragon Pokemon she has admired her entire life.

"Rayquaza's megalith! You stole it!" Ella shouted with anger.

"Sure did," Xerosic responded.

"You better hope Rayquaza doesn't find it."

"When we're done there won't be a Rayquaza to find it. Now shut up."

She also got to watch the capture of a Zygarde Core, which they codenamed Z2. Ella was sad to see the Pokemon abused by those hideous girls; but she was even more sad to see that the capture was successful because of Alain and his Charizard.

Ella shook her head. "I know you're collecting Mega Evolution energy though Alain, you don't have to bullshit me about that," Ella started. "But what are you doing with it and why does it effect Zygarde like that? Are you forcing it to mega evolve?"

"Zygarde does not mega evolve; but when the energy is infused with mind control serums, it proves to be highly successful," Xerosic snickered.

It didn't take much for Ella to figure out their plan. "You're going to make Zygarde wreck havoc on the world, just like the cells did to that island."

"You're a bright one," Xerosic responded. "No wonder you're a champion."

The television flashed to videos of Alain engaged in battle.

 _Poor Alain... he's so determined to help her. He's fighting for all the wrong reasons..._

Ella snapped back into reality and looked at Lysandre. "Are you really going to eliminate someone like that?" She nodded at the screen.

"I'll eliminate everyone, if it's the right thing to do."

"But it's not."

"But it is!" Lysandre snapped. "This world is corrupt. It's full of disorder. The only way to fix it is to start a new one."

"Not if I can help it!" Ella kicked her legs up and tucked her heels underneath the bar. She hoped that she could be able to reach the pokeballs on her belt. And she could have, if they were there in the first place.

Lysandre laughed. "Did you really think we wouldn't confiscate your Pokemon?"

Ella glared at Lysandre, who shot her a sly smile. "Fool. You should have learned."

He slowly walked towards Ella and leaned down to her level. He seized her left hand, because it was the one in front, and began to pull it towards him. The zip tie dug into her skin, and he refused to budge until he saw blood dripping down her wrist and wiped it up with his thumb.

"You dragon people love blood, don't you?" he asked. "You people say it gives a person life and spirit."

Ella didn't respond. She just stared at him.

Lysandre wiped the blood on her face. "And so it does, because when you lose it, you must be losing some life as well..."

"Yes," he stood up and turned around. "There will be no blood in bodies. Instead, it will be running rivers in my new world, giving life to the cleansed land!" He exclaimed.

"You're despicable," Ella said.

"I am only executing what this world truly needs."

"Dishonorable."

Ella and Lysandre engaged in a stare-down; and suddenly, elevator doors opened to the left of Ella. Out stepped a small girl with red hair. Ella guessed that this girl could be none other than the Mairin she's heard so much about.

"Lysandre!" she exclaimed.

"Mairin," he greeted, completely changing his demeanor.

Mairin stumbled over to him, but stopped when she saw Ella. Obviously confused about the confines, she turned to Lysandre and asked, "Who is this?"

"This is Ella. She has been infiltrating my database and selling my information, so when we found her, we took her in for questioning."

Ella rolled her eyes at the lie, which Mairin seemed to believe.

"Okay... well, I just came to ask how Alain is doing," she said.

"He's great! He's almost done with his mission," Lysandre responded.

"Then that means Chespie will get better soon!" She exclaimed.

"Yes!" Lysandre agreed, mocking the same enthusiasm Mairin had.

"That's so great! I'm so happy! I really am! I'm going to tell Chespie now!" Mairin shouted as she ran back towards the elevator.

Her attitude and tone of voice was so cute and admirable that Ella could see why Alain liked her so much. Even in her predicament, Mairin's innocence made Ella smile and feel young again. But at the same time, the fire that burned inside Ella swelled because Lysandre never intended to help her. He used her to blackmail Alain into getting what he needs, and that can never be forgiven.

 _Liar. What a fucking liar._

Right before Mairin stepped into the elevator, Ella spoke up and shouted to her.

"He's lying to you!"

Mairin was surprised, but held the door open so she could look out and look at Ella.

"I know Alain! And believe me, he's trying to protect you! Remember that!" She exclaimed at Mairin.

Mairin said nothing, she simply let the door shut as a sullen mood took over her face.

When she was gone, Lysandre let his evilness show again. He stomped back over to her and struck her across the face.

But Ella didn't allow it to phase her. Instead, she stared back at him with a challenging expression. Annoyed by her defiance, Lysandre grabbed her jaw and leaned his lips into her ear.

"When our experiment begins, the whole world will be in desolation. Including this laboratory. Fortunately, you will go down with it. Enjoy your stay." He released her forcefully and exited the room. Eventually, everyone followed him, and Ella was alone again.

* * *

The evening passed slowly. Ella arms were starting to feel sore now, so she desperately tried to free her hands from the pathetic, yet effective, zip ties. Her attempts were to no avail, as they dug into her wrists even more, and an overwhelming amount of blood seeped from her skin and stained her sleeves.

Ella's endeavors resulted in her crying from the pain. So she finally decided to stop for the night. Even with her hands still, the zip ties still bothered her raw skin, so she focused her mind on other things to avoid that pain.

She thought about Steven. He was most likely comfortable in Hoenn, probably looking at rocks in his home in Mossdeep. Ella always questioned Steven's passion, but now she felt sad to know that he was happy and she was desperate.

Then she thought about Cynthia. Cynthia, the woman Sinnoh thought would never be defeated. Ella remembered the day she met Cynthia, in the Celestic Town ruins. Together they had observed the ancient writings of Sinnoh: all about the actions of the Dragon Gods, and how to 'resurrect' them.

 _"These writings came from the ancient dragon peoples themselves," Cynthia had said, breathlessly._

 _"It's so beautiful," Ella agreed._

 _"Does it make you feel any way?" Cynthia asked._

 _"It makes me feel... powerful. Like I could do something great."_

 _"Of course it does. And it should. After all, they are your ancestors."_

 _"What?" Ella asked._

 _"Your surname is Dracanima. It literally translates to 'spirit of the dragon' in Ancient Sinnovian."_

 _"I knew that," Ella said. "And I've always known that I had relations to the dragon people. But not me, I can't do anything like this. I'm just me."_

 _"You could be most powerful, if you set your mind to it," Cynthia responded._

 _"I have set my mind to it. But Barry is always one step ahead of me."_

 _"Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good," Cynthia stated._

Ella took that phrase in. Ever since that day, she was inspired to always be her best.

She was her best the day she and Cynthia took on Team Galactic. She was her best when Dialga challenged her, and she emerged victories. She was her best the day she dethroned Cynthia from the Sinnoh League Championship. She was her best the day she met Alain.

 _Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good._

Yet her she was, the good, chained up like a disobedient Pokemon. She had been reduced of her humanity, left to die in a dark laboratory lit by torches.

And so she cried. She cried about her failures. She cried because she couldn't convince Alain to believe her. She cried because she allowed herself to be captured. She cried because the world she knew and loved was about to be exterminated, and the boy she grown to love was going to go down with it.

The tears blurred her eyes, and she allowed them to for a long period of time. That was, until, a shade of green replaced the black. Ella pressed her eyelids shut to clear her vision, and she saw Mairin standing in front of her.

"Hey, uh, I know I don't really know you. But if you're friends with Alain, then I should definitely trust you." Mairin shuffled in her pockets.

"I don't know if I believe what you say about Lysandre. He's been a really good guy to me and Chespie. But like I said, if Alain likes you, then there must be good in you, too," she said.

"If there's one thing I've learned about Chespie's condition, it's that no one deserves to suffer. I'm sorry I can't do anything about your hands. But I did bring a few things to help you." Mairin unclasped her hands, and showed Ella the six pokeballs she had been holding the entire time.

 _My Pokemon!_ The tears were ready to begin flowing again. How did Mairin find them?!

Mairin placed them in a breast pocket that was on Ella's jacket, and left the button unsnapped. "I also brought you a towel, to wipe the blood off your face."

Ella smiled at Mairin, and she began to wipe the smudge of blood that Lysandre had left there. Although Mairin didn't say anything about her tears, she just continued to rub the towel on Ella's cheeks; wiping away any trace of sadness that once consumed her.

"Hang in there, Ella," Mairin said assuringly. "Everything will be alright. Just be hopeful."

Mairin gave Ella one last smile before she exited the room for the second time that day.

 _Everything will be alright. Yes, Mairin. Yes it will be._

* * *

 **A/N** **:** Hi everyone! Hope you're still enjoying the story! For those of you keeping up, I'm sorry if my updates become irregular... I started school again last week and that has been taking up all of my time :( Just be patient! I will update as often as possibile!

Thanks :)

\- TA


	13. Reconvene

"Come on, Ella... pick up..."

Steven Stone sat at the table in his small home in Mossdeep City. The silver-haired Champion of Hoenn had been calling the Champion of Sinnoh on his Pokenav for quite a while now, but to no avail. Each time he called, the call went straight to a voice message. Not once did he ever hear a ringback.

After he called for the umpteenth time, Steven ran his fingers through his hair in frustration and set his Pokenav on the table. He stared at it intensely, wondering why Ella wouldn't pick up his calls. He liked to check up on her from time to time; after all, she had traveled all the way to Kalos upon his request. Also, she was doing some undercover work for him. Steven asked her to meet and accompany Alain, Lysandre's favorite puppet, and see what she could get out of him about Team Flare.

Ella reported sometimes, but rather infrequently. But when she did, it was all things Steven already knew about Alain. He didn't mind, because everything Ella told him about Alain was nothing compared to what Steven found in Team Flare's archives.

Team Flare was using Alain, Steven no longer doubted that. He had found blueprints for large machinery in a folder called "Operation Z," which required the use of these machines for the plan to succeed. Steven studied the blueprints, and later found in other file that these machines would be provided power via mega evolution energy.

The file about the harvested mega evolution energy contained Steven's proof that Alain had been manipulated. In this file, there was an extensive description as to how Alain's Mega Ring was built, and what it does. Apparently, it takes it the energy given off by Pokemon who undergo mega evolution, and then it encodes it into transferable data, which goes right back to Lysandre's Labs.

The files said nothing about Alain and his true motivations, but that wasn't something Steven needed to dig for. He's already heard the way Alain talked to Mairin, and saw the way he looked at her. That, to Steven, was enough to know that Alain does everything for her sake.

But based on the files, Alain's mission had not been completed. Which surprised Steven, because he was sure he had gotten so much from his journeys already. After all, Alain had seen Steven use mega evolution three times, and he'd battled numerous mega evolution trainers. Hell, he'd even been there when the megalith was captured.

 _The megalith._

Even in all of his digging, Steven had no idea what they were going to ultimately do with the megalith. He had thought that taking it was suspicious, so he did question Lysandre about that. However, he was assured that he was just going to study its properties. That was convincing enough, until Lysandre rejected Steven's help. He couldn't imagine why, because studying rocks happened to be Steven's profession.

Which is ironic: the rock maniac forgetting completely about the rock. Steven shrugged, but he rose from his seat in his kitchen and off into his bedroom, where his work space was. He logged onto his computer and booted up the hacking software he'd developed.

Within seconds he was looking at the main menu of archives. He looked at some of the tabs, however, something was different this time. When he clicked on the tab, the page would just refresh instead of taking him to the next page. Frustration irked him again, so he finally decided to just change the URL.

He knew he had seen it's page before, at least _glossed_ over it, so he knew he could find it. Eventually his plan worked, and he was looking at the database for Operation Z again.

And there it was, a secondary page titled "Megalith." It could have jumped out and bit him. He hovered the mouse over the word, and he stared at his computer so intensely that he could see his reflection on the screen. He clicked on the tab.

Something happened.

He expected to be taken to another page; but instead, his eyes fixated upon his reflection in the screen. No focus was required this time, because the screen had turned entirely to black, save for a large red square in the middle of the screen.

 _RESTRICTED FILE. AUTHORIZATION IS REQUIRED._

"Shit. They're onto me," Steven said to himself. He let his fist fall onto the desk, unsure of his next move. He went back to the Operation Z page, and began to click on all of the other tabs; but he found the same red square on every page.

"This isn't right," he murmured. "I've looked at this pages a ton of times. Why are they restricted now?"

He clicked on incessantly, hoping that his desperate endeavors would be authorization enough.

Steven let out a low grumble in frustration and sank his face into his hands. It was getting late, and he was getting tired. But he let his obsessive compulsions get the best of him again. Every time Steven wanted to study or figure something out, he had to do it. And he wouldn't be satisfied until he knew, even if it meant staying up late.

But right now, it seemed like no matter what he tried he would never figure it out. A headache sprouted in his temples, and Steven knew if he didn't stop it right away, he would grow even more frustrated.

Steven had a very unconventional solution to all his headaches.

He rose from his seat again, and went to his kitchen. He opened his fridge, which held some pretty standard things for his house: milk, bread, eggs, and a bottled of chilled merlot.

He shook his head as he reached for the wine. He had no idea why, but chilled red wine always made his headaches go away, and fast. Always.

Steven poured the wine into a wide, round glass and headed back to his computer. He sat down in the wheeled chair and took a small sip. Like magic, the pressure in his head began to subside.

As his pain relieved, Steven shut his eyes and imaged looking at Team Flare's archives. He remembered what he read from them, and pictured them as if he were looking through a camera.

Steven's eyes shot wide open.

 _Cameras!_

"That's it!" he spoke aloud. "I can look at security footage again!" Quickly, Steven's fingers flew over the keyboard, and it sent him back to the main page. Surprisingly, he had no trouble getting into the security footage.

It was all as he'd seen before. Chespie's accident, Rayquaza's megalith capture, and Alain's battled. Nothing knew. No megalith stories. Steven sighed. He realized his mission was turning out to be a flop. It just wasn't his night.

He propped up his elbow and rested his head in his hand.

 _Why isn't Ella answering me?_

 _Why can't I find anything in Team Flare's archives anymore?_

Steven blankly stared at the computer screen, and he absentmindedly moved the mouse over the live security footage link. He expected what he'd find, because all security footage is generally the same.

There was always a bunch of hallways and large rooms where people just walked around and had conversations. The videos were silent, so its not like he could listen in on a conversation. He studied all the tiny frames portraying Team Flare members going about a probably diabolic work day.

One of the cameras displayed a certain room that caught his eye.

It was entirely red. Red, with red walls and red floors. Even the tables and seats were red. The room had a lower experiment level where scientific machinery was installed. The upper level seemed to be a viewing dock. The consistency of red in the room surprised Steven, but a tiny speck of black along the viewing dock surprised him more.

He leaned in to look at the speck more closely. Upon examining, Steven noticed it was a person, with long, black, shiny hair.

 _No fucking way._

He clicked on the video, which enlarged it. His suspicious were correct: this was a person with black hair. This person was kneeling on the ground, and their head was bent down, so he couldn't see their face, but their hair draped down and almost touched the ground.

 _No. No no no no no no no._

He watched the video in horror, as realization settled in, he knew who the person was. It couldn't be anyone else than Ella. Her black hair was unmistakable, and she was dressed in all black, which Steven knew was a typical Ella outfit.

He gasped, then picked up his wine glass and tipped back the whole thing.

He covered his mouth with his hand. Fear rose in his heart and his body shook a little bit. Just then, something else happened on the screen.

Lysandre, the man who Steven had grown to hate at this point, stood before her.

He kneeled down to her position. Steven right clicked and drew a box over Ella and Lysandre, which cropped everything around them out of the frame; and quickly, he enhanced the image. He could clearly see the blood trickle down Ella's arm as Lysandre pulled her hand toward him.

Her head shot up, and she appeared to be in pain; but she just continued to stare at Lysandre. After some dialogue that Steven couldn't hear, Lysandre wiped some of her blood from her wrist with his finger, then proceeded to wipe it on her face.

He couldn't watch anymore. He exited out of the internet and closed his computer. He felt horribly disgusted by what Lysandre had done, but he wanted to know how Ella got in that position. Why was she captured? And why isn't she with Alain?

 _Maybe that's why I can't get in to the archives anymore._

He felt guilty, knowing that she wouldn't be in this position if it weren't for him. His heart lurched. He almost wanted to cry.

 _Ella is too good for this. She's so perfect and pure, she shouldn't be suffering at the hands of that creep. It's my fault. I know it is. I need to do something._

Steven's hands slid down his thighs, and he could feel the sweat sticking to his dress pants. What could he do? Ella was in Lysandre's Labs, that's for sure, but how the hell would he get in there?

 _I doubt I can just walk in at this point. And even if I did, I have no idea where to go! How would I be able to get in that laboratory and get Ella?_

The solution settled into his mind as quickly as the questions. No, he couldn't walk in, and he had no idea how to break in; but he knew someone that could help him.

He rose from his seat for the last time and went back to his table. There, he retrieved his bag, which he stuffed with traveling essentials as well as five occupied pokeballs. A sixth one, empty, sat on the table.

He picked up the vacant pokeball and went to his backyard, where a giant, silver, robotic Pokemon lay in the grass, enjoying the moonlight.

"Metagross," Steven called out. "We got to go."

"Meta," the Pokemon grumbled and nodded its head, allowing its master to return it to the pokeball.

Steven, with fire in his eyes, retraced his steps back into his house and out the front door.

* * *

When will my life be normal again?

It seems like since I started traveling for Professor Sycamore, my life has continued to do one-eighties every step I take.

First, when I was traveling for the Professor, I was only visiting ruins and looking for mega stones. That's when I met Lysandre, who had been doing the same thing. He recruited me to help his cause: study mega evolution for peaceful purposes. He offered me a keystone and a mega stone for my Charizard in exchange for collecting mega evolution data in every battle I had. That went smoothly until I met Mairin.

At first, she was an annoyance. I wanted her to get out of my way, but I grew too fond of her that when she was obliged to stay behind, I felt sad about not having her around anymore.

And ironically, that's the same way I feel about Ella. The mysterious yet cunning Sinnoh Champion who accompanied me on my journeys.

Sometimes she said things that I didn't like, but I had grown used to them until she flat out accused my boss of being a criminal. She angered me because Lysandre has helped me become the strongest in more ways than one, and he is going to help me save Chespin and make Mairin smile once more.

But now, as I travel by myself again, I kind of miss Ella's spontaneousness and demeanor. She was a tough traveler, a fierce opponent, but more importantly, a good friend.

I wonder if her and Mairin would be friends...

Lysandre says that all the time I spent with Ella delayed the gathering of mega evolution energy, so I've been vigorously working on that. Recently, I heard that many gym leaders in this region used Pokemon that are capable of mega evolution. And that if I gathered eight badges, I could battle many trainers at the Kalos League who would also use mega evolution.

I thought that would be a good way to speed things up, so here I am, with seven gym badges. The Kalos League drew nearer and nearer every day, and recently I saw a bulletin in a Pokemon Center that Champions from other regions would be there.

Like the Sinnoh Region.

As much as I shouldn't want to see Ella again, I wanted to. I wanted to tell her I was wrong for blowing up on her, but she was wrong her for accusations. I wanted to touch her hands again, and feel the shock it sent through me, mostly because I'd never felt that way before.

I let my thoughts slip and returned back to reality, I was walking my way from Laverre City to Lumiose City. I've always thought this swamp was disgusting, and I hated getting my shoes wet, but this was the closest way there.

The Nature Trail had been dwindling over the years. The plants had lost their luscious green color, and browned more and more every year. The swamp was terrible to me, but the Pokemon that lived along here seemed happy.

I stomped my way down the hill and made my way to the gate for Lumiose City. First, I had to walk past the horrifying abandoned playground.

This place always gave me the creeps, even when I was a kid. Something about it seemed so... haunted.

Instead of letting temptation get to me, I kept my head facing straight forward to the gate.

"Hello, Alain," a cracking voice said.

Hello, temptation.

I stopped and whipped my head over my shoulder, and I saw an incredibly old woman sitting on the rusty swing. She was smiling at me wickedly and tilting her head.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"Nothing, really," she responded.

"Who are you?"

"No one."

I stared at her, confused at her responses and horrified at her appearance. She returned my gaze and continue to smile at me with brown, rotting teeth. Instead of staying here longer, I ran for the gate.

"Be careful, Alain. The divergence of your future is coming fast. So fast, it might just hit you!" she cackled.

But I didn't stop. I was too afraid to take her words into consideration.

The blinding light of the city set a boundary between me and that woman, and I felt safe again.

* * *

I ran so fast that I tripped on a pothole in the road and fell to my knees. Panic still lingered in my blood, and I looked around at my surroundings.

Just ordinary people. Doing ordinary things. I stayed there until my breath came back to me, but I still needed to sit down for a while.

It was edging towards nighttime anyway, so I figured I'd go check into the Pokemon Center. Before I met Ella, I preferred to just stay outside for the nights. But staying in a Pokemon Center made me feel like I would open my door and she would be standing there, waiting for me to get up.

I rose, and made my way across the busy street to North Boulevard's Pokemon Center. Just before the doors could register my movement, something light with a canvas texture hit me in the head, and surprise knocked me down.

What the? Who the hell would hit me in the head with their bag? What kind of day has this been?

After a few seconds, my thoughts settled, and I looked up to see the culprit. Underneath the bright street lamps in the city stood a man of average height wearing an impressive suit, with hair as silver as his favorite Pokemon, and eyes as cold as his facial expression.

"Steven?!"

* * *

 **AN:** BOOM. Cliffhanger.

Thanks again to everyone who favorites/follows/reviews this story! I appreciate it so so much!

\- TA


	14. For What's to Come

Steven was angry. I could see that.

However, he chose to speak no words with me. Instead, he lowered his arms and calmly stepped into the Pokemon Center. I raised myself up and stared at him, completely baffled by his actions. When I first met Steven he was so cool and collected. But now, he's visibly mad. And I think he's mad at me.

But what could I have done to make him so upset?

After my thoughts settled I scurried into the Pokemon Center, and I found Steven talking to Nurse Joy. I went over and stood behind him, waiting for their conversation to end so I could confront him about his issues.

"A room for two, then?" Nurse Joy smiled.

"Yes, thank you," Steven replied, any trace of anger gone from his pleasant tone.

Nurse Joy went to her back room. Then Steven turned around to face me, with all of his emotions plastered back on his face. "We need to talk," he spoke quietly and sternly.

"Agreed," I said, louder and surprised.

Nurse Joy came back behind her desk. "You two are in Room 216," she smiled. "Take the stairs to your left, and you should find it on the right side of the hallway! And should you need any supplies, there is a Pokemart counter behind me to my left! Bathrooms and washrooms are to my right. Do enjoy your stay here!"

Steven returned her smile and walked towards the stairs she mentioned. He didn't ask me to follow but I knew to anyway. He walked a few steps ahead of me up the red stairs and opened the door that led to the dormitory hallway.

"So what do you want to talk to me about? Maybe you could explain why you greeted me so harshly," I snapped at him.

Steven didn't budge. "You'll see," was all he said.

We located Room 216 and Steven swiped the key card in the door. The walls in the room were painted pale blue, and two twin beds had white sheets on them. Between the beds stood a desk with a vase full of lilacs in it. Our room luckily had a window, as most rooms in this Pokemon Center didn't because it was connected to other buildings on North Boulevard. But our window gave us a view of the courtyard below, with a grass area and a battle area. Next to our window was a small table, the wood matched the wood of the desk, with four small chairs around it. Steven set his stuff down on that table.

I stepped out of the threshold and walked to the table. "Okay," I began. "Start talking."

"No, maybe you should," he snapped back.

I exhaled. "Steven! I don't even know what you're talking about! You just showed up here, all angry, and you won't even explain yourself! What's going on?"

"Where's Ella?"

Oh.

I shifted my eyes toward the ground. "I ran away from her after she tried to deceive me."

Steven smirked. "And why would someone like her try to do that?"

"I don't know, maybe you put her up to it."

"Well, what did she tell you?"

I took a seat. "Well, one day she appeared out of nowhere. She started following me around, much to my annoyance. But I became more civil with her when I found out she was this fantastic battler, and when I found out she owned a keystone. Although she never battled me. She never wanted to. Then one day we travel to Shalour City and some dumb magazine dropped a huge truth bomb on me. She is a damn Champion. In Sinnoh. Of course I confronted her about it, especially because she never hesitated to pick questions out of me but hardly answered mine. But we settled our differences and I sincerely enjoyed the little time I spent with her. Until one day, some dude attacked me outside of a Pokemon Center and wanted to take my keystone. Ella saved me, but the next day she claimed that Lysandre was the one who sent him. I got angry, and she came clean with everything. She told me you sent her to find out stuff about Lysandre's work, and accused him of being a criminal. So, I walked away. I haven't seen her since."

Steven paused for a moment after my story, and then laughed a little. "She was right."

"Right about what?" I asked.

"Everything."

"She can't be. I don't know why you guys think there's something up with Lysandre, but there's not. He's a really good guy, he's helped me out tremendously in my journey. I don't know why you guys can't see that," I pleaded with him.

"So Alain," Steven didn't hesitate. "Do you have any idea what Ella could be doing right now?"

"No, do you?" I said, not willing to play his game.

He sat back in his chair and fixed his icy blue eyes on me. He sighed, then brought a laptop out of his bag. After a few minutes of clicking keys, he turned the screen around to me with a video.

It was Lysandre's experiment room. I must have been in that room a hundred times. It looked like it always did, with the grunts at work on the experiment floor and Lysandre and Xerosic on the observation dock.

But, I saw something behind Lysandre.

The tiny black figure sort of blended in with Lysandre's black suit, so it was hard to decipher what it could be. When he turned around, however, it was clear as day.

A young girl, with long black hair, dressed in all black.

It was Ella. No doubt about it.

I widened my eyes and watched in horror. She was bound to the railing on the wall. Her knees were on the floor, and her hands were hung awkwardly above her head. I watched as my boss went over to her.

Steven paused right there.

"What are you doing? Let me watch!" I demanded.

"Let me fix it real quick," he replied.

Within moments he handed the laptop back, and the screen was only of Ella and Lysandre. I watched as Lysandre pulled at Ella's hands and made her bleed. She was in pain, I knew it. And the look on her face told me that she was truly desperate.

My heart sank. I felt waves of shock going through my arms. Suddenly the room was very hot. Silence was screaming in my ears. My head became cloudy. Anxiety boiled in my blood.

"Alain," Steven said calmly. "Why do you think Lysandre would do this to her."

I let my shaking fingers close up in fists before I answered. My eyes began to sting and my vision blurred.

"Because she was right."

He said nothing. He sat there and watched me fall apart. He knew that truth was resonating in everything that Ella had told me. Everything about Operation Z, everything about Chespie, and everything about Lysandre's evil intentions. They had been true all along.

All of these emotions spun through me like a sickening roller coaster. I tried to reach a conclusion, one that would make everything be all right in the end. But I failed each time. Frustrated, I began pounding my fist on the table.

"All this time," I shouted, choking back tears. "All this time I thought I have been doing good. Bettering myself and helping others. But what have I really been fighting for? What have I done?!"

"Alain," Steven tried to reassure me, but I cut him off.

"What has become of me?!" I screamed, and a buried my face in my hands. I felt like a monster, one that prayed on the innocent for such an evil purpose.

Steven reached over and placed his hands on my shoulders. "It will be all right. I'm here to help you."

"You can't help me, I'm in too deep now," I rejected. "Lysandre has all the mega evolution energy I've gained over the years. As well as Rayquaza's megalith. He's got all the power in his hands. And I'm responsible. What's worse, I am responsible for all the misery that Ella and Mairin have been feeling. It's all because of me."

"Alain, you can do something. You can fix your mistakes."

"I'm powerless up against him. I can't save the world and I can never get them back. And even if I could, Mairin's Chespin would never heal and Ella would never forgive me."

"You don't know that," Steven said.

"I do. This is not fixable. I have been deceived this whole time. I thought I was helping the ones I love but I was actually hurting them. I deserve a fate worse than death-"

"Don't you say that," Steven scorned me. "Look, you can either run from this, or learn from it. Run, and you allow yourself and everyone else you care about to die. Learn, and you and I can save them."

I didn't respond quickly. I sat there for a while and tried to make sense of my feelings. I felt angry and frustrated at myself, and that made me want to punish myself. But the more I thought about it, the more it became clear to me.

It is not my fault.

It's Lysandre's fault.

He's the one that deceived me. He's the reason I did everything I did. He's the reason why Ella and Mairin suffer.

I wanted to put the blame on him. But instead, I turned my anger and resentment into defiance and ability. Of course I will learn from this. I will learn that people cannot always be trusted, no matter how nice and welcoming they may be. Sometimes you think people are your friend, but they are truly your greatest enemy.

It's funny that I thought this way about Ella. I thought that she became the enemy.

How wrong I was.

But now I've learned my lesson. And Lysandre will learn his. The hard way.

"So, Steven," I said, calm and collected now. "Where do we begin?"

"Saving Ella and Mairin is our top priority," he said.

"Agreed."

"So we have to find a way in to get them without stirring up anything. After that, our Pokemon can easily destroy those machines. And Lysandre won't be left with much," Steven continued.

"I know his lab inside and out. I can find a good way in without anyone noticing us," I told him.

"It's not you they will be worried about. You can walk through the front door and they will greet you with open arms. It's me they will try to keep away," Steven said. "And plus, I've went through the security system online a thousand times. I won't be able to clear it."

"So will shut it down," I said.

"Do you know how to do that?" he asked.

"Yes, all you have to do is unplug the generator." Another idea sprung up in me. "And if we unplug it, the entire laboratory will be in such disarray that you can slip in without any problems."

Steven nodded. "Okay. So that's how I'll try to get in."

But I still had some doubts. "But you think our Pokemon will be able to destroy the machines? Charizard and Metagross are powerful, don't get me wrong, but those machines contain years worth of mega evolution energy," I trailed off.

"Yes, but if we can free Ella first, we should have no trouble. Her Pokemon are incredibly powerful."

"I guess I've seen her Charizard before. It is powerful."

Steven laughed. "You haven't seen much of that Charizard. It's amazing. When did you see it?"

"When she saved me from that guy. She used Flamethrower on him."

"Did you _see_ it though?"

"Yeah, I mean it was dark, but I could tell what it was."

"Alain," Steven said. "Her Charizard, it's black."

"Yeah?" I replied. "Mine is too, when it mega evolves."

"No, hers is black all the time. Black with red underneath its wings. And it's big. Much bigger than your Charizard."

"So it has discoloration. What's the big deal?" I asked.

"It only makes sense that she would have a powerful Charizard considering who she is. She's a Sinnoh native, of the great dragon people."

"I knew that," I said.

"But listen. Charizard's Mega form is only supposed to be a more powerful and aerodynamic form. The dragon form can only be brought out by people who have mastered the dragon, people like her." Steven replied.

I was puzzled. "So what does that make me?"

Steven shrugged. "I don't know. Special, I guess. I was surprised to see your Charizard mega evolve into a dragon."

"Maybe it's because I've experienced other dragons? Like Garchomp?"

Steven just shrugged again. "I don't know. Maybe we can ask her when we see her."

"So us three will be able to take down an entire criminal organization?" I asked.

"We'll have to try," Steven encouraged me. "Since were talking about Sinnoh's dragon myths, they said that a three-headed dragon is the most powerful dragon."

"You, Ella, and me," I counted.

"Precisely," Steven smiled. "It's getting late, Alain. We should get to bed. We start our day early tomorrow. Sleep well."

We both waited a moment before concluding the conversation. Steven got up first, and headed for the bathroom downstairs. But I stayed in our room, taking off my bag and boots. I laid in one of the beds and let my thoughts take over me.

 _I'm going to save you. Both of you. I may not have been able to help you before, but now I know I am stronger than before. Nothing can stop me._

My thoughts of peace and solidarity lulled me to sleep, preparing me for what would be the most epic battle I will ever have.


	15. Apocalypse

"Lysandre, the buses are loaded. Aliana and Celosia are waiting for us in Lumiose City. The new world is about the begin." Xerosic began to laugh through his teeth.

Lysandre looked around the observation room, pleased with all the work. Everything had gone according to plan. Alain had gathered enough mega evolution energy to power the weapons that will destroy the world and create a new perfect one. This has been his dream... his dream since he realized humans were selfish and unworthy...

"And don't forget about the subordinate," Lysandre added.

"Oh yes!" Xerosic exclaimed. "Z2 patiently awaits us in our vehicle."

Lysandre bowed his head and shut everything down in the observation room, except for a system of cameras that were set up over Lumiose City. Everywhere there were people happily going along with their days: sightseeing at Prism Tower, shopping at the boutique, and eating overpriced food at Sushi High Roller.

"How about the vermin?" Lysandre spoke aloud. "Is she comfortable?"

In all the confusion at the lab preparing for departure, it was easy to forget Ella was still bound to the railing. She still wore the same clothes, and the blood that Lysandre had drawn dried to her wrists. She had been strung up there for about a week now with no food, and her body began to slim even more. Her clothes were dirty, and she desperately wanted a bath more than anything else.

"About as comfortable as I can be," she answered. Ella realized her best way to be defiant in this position was to retort her answers. By now, she had still remained optimistic, and she still had her poke-balls in her pocket. All she needed was the right time to strike, and she was about to get it.

"Where are you going, anyway?" she asked. "Taking a vay-cay in Alola? My friend Cynthia says it is a nice place."

"Wouldn't you like that?" Xerosic answered. "Our new world will be better than any vacation spot."

"Whatever," Ella said slowly. "And you're going to leave me here?"

"Yes. We are going to leave you here. You'll leave with this world," Xerosic replied.

"So basically what you're saying is you're leaving me here to die," she said.

Lysandre nodded his head and smiled wryly.

"What makes you think I'll stay? Maybe I'll find a way to get out and stop you," Ella threatened.

"No you won't," Lysandre answered. He clapped his hands, and two grunts appeared on both sides of him. "These guys will make sure you stay." They were two skinny guys will almost translucent skin and orange sunglasses. They looked ridiculous.

 _These have to be the wimpiest grunts around._ Ella thought to herself. And she laughed a little. They were probably Lysandre's "undesirables," or "deplorables."

Ella smiled defiantly. "Great company."

At this point, all but Lysandre, Xerosic, Ella, and the two grunts had left the observation room. Xerosic's Holocaster rang.

" _Sir. Everyone is evacuated and ready to begin the mission._ "

Pleased, Xerosic tucked away his Holocaster and faced Lysandre. "It's time," he said in a sinister voice.

Lysandre stepped over to the control panel and turned off all the lights, but still left the camera footage on. "Unfortunately," he began. "We're gonna need to turn off all the lights in order too keep the cameras from delaying. We want to make sure you see the world end, Ella." His middle-aged face contorted into an evil smile. "Don't worry, Ella. I left the girl and her pathetic Pokemon here to go down with you."

He disgusted Ella so much that her stomach churned on whatever could have still been in there. His expressions made her want to gag, and his voice made her skin crawl more than an Ariados. She hated this man, absolutely hated him.

"But," his tone rang more pleasantly. "We have these torches here for you. You can entertain my grunts with your tears. They shall see them." He pulled a match and lighter out of his breast pocket and lit the torches. Fire overcame them quickly and the observation room was blazing with orange.

"Oh my God," Ella said, squinting her eyes. "Is that citronella or kerosene?!"

Lysandre smiled. "We here at Team Flare only appreciate the dangerous things."

 _Good._

"It is now that we bid you farewell. It's been nice getting to know you all, but unfortunately we must make the world better. And to do that, we must leave you behind." And with that, Lysandre and Xerosic stepped out of the observation room and left the three to their demise.

Ella thought about the grunts. How could they accept their death so easily? Do they think that sacrificing themselves to Lysandre's evil purposes will create a better world? Has he manipulated all under his wings like that? The thought was saddening and repulsive.

The room was very quiet. The grunts kept their eyes on Ella. She looked around the room to avoid their eye contact. She did not budge or struggle, rather she decided to irritate them.

" _Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall... ninety-nine bottles of beer..."_ she sang.

"No singing," one grunt snapped.

"Why not?" Ella asked. "Don't you like that song?"

"Let's go with that," the other grunt said.

"Then how about this one... _It's a small world after all... it's a small world after all..._ "

"No. No more singing," the first grunt interrupted.

"Fine," Ella said.

She allowed the room to remain quiet for several more minutes. She kept her eyes away from the grunts the entire time. Her mind drifted to an escape plan.

 _I could kick these torches over. That would create a distraction for sure. And I just need to figure out how to get my Pokemon out, too. Charizard could cut these zip-ties. God, who knew zip-ties would be so effective. Ouch. OH! I have to get Mairin and Chespin for Alain. How am I going to do that? Ugghh.. I'll just have to run around and find her. It doesn't seem like anyone else is here._

 _One thing is for sure, though. I can't make my move until Lysandre does. I need to act fast when the time comes._

 _But until then..._

Ella cleared her vocal chords.

 _"Yoooooo... I'll tell you what I want, what I really really want! So tell me what you want, what you really really want! I wanna.. I wanna.. I wanna.."_

One grunt came over and punched her in the face, and everything went black.

* * *

Within hours, Team Flare had reached Lumiose City. Lysandre was standing at the top of Prism Tower, watching the city live. He smiled, for he knew that everything was about to change. By now, the evil organization had captured Clemont, the Lumiose Gym Leader, and his younger sister Bonnie. They were being held captive in the same room that Xerosic set up his weapon.

"It's finally ready," Xerosic laughed, stroking the large, red ray-gun. "Shall we begin?" He turned to Lysandre.

"You're not going to get away with this!" Clemont shouted.

"And what are you going to do about it? You're tied up in rope!" Xerosic giggled.

Clemont clenched his teeth and sneered at Xerosic.

"That's enough, Xerosic," Lysandre said. "Bring in the subordinate," he called to a few grunts.

Within seconds, a few more grunts came in the room carrying Z2 in a red glass box. It was unconscious and not moving. Xerosic grabbed Z2 and released it from the box, then he placed it on a metal platform in front of the ray-gun.

"What are you doing?!" Clemont screamed.

"Don't hurt that Pokemon!" Bonnie screamed after him.

But they were ignored. The ray-gun fired up within seconds, and blasted red-hot energy onto Z2. Its body twisted with pain, and Z2's scream could be heard telepathically. Clemont and Bonnie winced at the experience, while everyone else smiled.

The ray-gun ceased, and all was silent for a hot second. Everyone's attention was focused on the green Pokemon when its eyes finally opened.

They were glowing red.

The rage of Z2 could be felt through its telepathy. It looked around the room as if everyone was the enemy. And most of them were.

"Zygarde," Lysandre stepped up and spoke to it. "People have ruined this world. They have thrown it out of order! They stand accused of manipulating nature and all that lives in it! Including Pokemon! They must be punished!" His face turned red.

Z2, now revealed as Zygarde, focused its glaring eyes on Lysandre. Its rage swelled with every word he spoke. However, his anger was not towards Lysandre, but the people he spoke of.

"Their selfish needs have ruined this world! Ruined everything that progress has taken them to! They cannot be fixed. They must... be... destroyed!"

Zygarde leapt off the metal platform and jumped out a window. It situated itself on a platform at the top of the tower.

It began to glow green, but its eyes stayed the same, controlling red.

" _Sapieno exitorsio! Mente os entas!"_

Clemont gasped. He couldn't believe that Team Flare was successful in controlling a legendary Pokemon. He looked over at Lysandre frantically, who watched it calmly with a smile.

"What's is saying?" Clemont demanded. "Tell me!"

Lysandre's smile grew. "It said what it needed to say. That humans are destructive, and that all shall die."

Clemont went back to watching Zygarde in a panic. Zygarde glew green, and there were flashing green lights coming toward it. It absorbed them. Suddenly the green light overtook Zygarde and made it invisible. The green light rose and grew bigger and bigger, until it revealed Zygarde in a different form. It looked like a large, green and black snake with black appendages protruding from its back.

Green flames surrounded Zygarde, and the ground begin to shake. After a few moments, tree roots, red with energy, rose from the streets and slammed into cars, buildings, and homes. The people were running frantically. Some had taken shelter in buildings that would eventually be victim to the roots' attacks.

The roots even wrapped themselves around groups of people and threw them down the streets.

Chaos had begun.

Lysandre stepped out and stood behind Zygarde, who flared with anger and energy.

"People of Kalos!" he exclaimed. "Operation Apocalypse has begun, and it won't be long until it takes this entire region."

* * *

I woke to heavy eyelids.

I had a hard time sleeping. I was too nervous about today.

Today would be the day Steven and I would save Ella and Mairin from Lysandre. We would also have to destroy his weapons and his team. I was nervous about betraying someone who had become so close to me.

But I tried not to let it get to me. Steven had told me after all that betraying Lysandre is the right thing if it means saving people I love.

I laced up my boots and waited for Steven at the table.

"So," he broke the silence. "What's the game plan?"

"I get in the labs. And then I shut down the electricity. It will take some time for the backup generators to start, so we have to make haste."

He adjusted his cuffs. "Do you know both of their locations within the labs?"

"I do. How about I go get Mairin and you go get Ella. Ella would be easier to find."

"Fair enough. You'll just have to tell me how to-"

Steven stopped when the building shook.

"What was that?" he asked.

"I don't know," I answered.

"Could it be an earthquake?"

"Those don't usually happen in Kalos..." I trailed off.

I got up and looked out the window. The people on the street were running towards the outskirts of the city. While I heard muted screaming, everything felt silent. Except for my heartbeat.

I was waiting for something to happen. I was expecting another vibration; but instead, something that looked like a root fly by the window and shattered the glass.

The screaming wasn't muted anymore. Now everything was real. Steven and I rushed downstairs as fast as we could, where Nurse Joy was telling everyone to remain calm. We managed to slip out the doors amid all the pandemonium and entered a world of chaos on the street.

Bodies. Limp, lifeless bodies lay in the street. Some of their eyes were open and filled with hope that was not meant to last.

My stomach turned. I looked around and saw the same red roots infesting all of the buildings on the street. There was something familiar in the roots, something I knew all too well.

"It's mega evolution energy," I said to Steven.

"What?" he asked.

"That's what's making them so strong. It's Lysandre. He's doing this."

"Then we have a change of plans," Steven announced.

"But we have to save Ella and Mairin!" I screamed. "If we don't, they'll d-"

Steven grabbed my wrist. "But if we do, many more will." He looked at me with stern eyes.

I had to admit that he was right, but I did not want to lose them. Not at all. My eyes turned red and I could feel tears brimming.

"Sometimes," Steven sighed. "Sometimes we have to make sacrifices for those we love. No matter how much it hurts. And besides, Ella is such a strong person. I'm sure she'll work something out."

I had to let my rationality win, and I released my hand from Steven's. I pulled out Charizard's poke-ball and tossed it in the air.

He landed with a fierce growl. "All right, Charizard. Let's cut through this roots and stop Lysandre!" I shouted. He roared in response.

Steven called out Metagross, and together we chipped away at the roots as best as we could.

* * *

When Ella came to, the two grunts were facing away from her and towards the large screen. They had taken their sunglasses off, and their wide eyes were fixed on the screen.

Ella let her eyes adjust before she focused on the screen herself.

"And it won't be long until it takes this entire region!" Ella heard from the screen.

She saw Zygarde at the top of Prism Tower, controlling roots that were destroying Lumiose City. They had torn down buildings, and houses, and thrown cars across blocks. The worst part about the cameras was watching the roots take up people and throw them. Some were slammed where they were standing. Others were impaled by smaller roots.

So much death and destruction was on the screen, and all Ella could do was watch.

Tears rolled down her cheek, and she almost let out a sob before she felt a vibration.

The two grunts whipped their heads back towards her, and then another one came. The vibrations got even stronger until the screen went black.

Everything seemed to stop moving for a second before a huge, red root broke through the walls. Several smaller ones followed, lining the ground of the observation room. Some of them had placed themselves awfully close to the torches.

 _These things will catch on fire..._ Ella thought.

"Is this really what you want?" Ella screamed at the grunts. "Do you really want to spend your life like this?"

"Our lives serve Lysandre's," they responded. "We serve him."

Ella filled with rage. She focused her eyes on the ground and realized she could no longer be rational with anyone. She needed to be aggressive.

"Well, then. You're not going to serve him anymore. You're going to die."

With all her strength, she sprang her legs sideways and kicked over one of the torches. It immediately caught the root on fire, and Ella spun around and kicked over the second torch. The fire had caught the grunts shortly after and Ella watched them become engulfed in flames. Then, she threw her legs over the bar and the poke-balls in her pocket successfully landed on the floor. They opened and out came all of her team: Charizard, Dragonite, Salamence, Garchomp, Umbreon, and Bulbasaur.

"Charizard, free me with Dragon Claw!"

The claws on Charizard's left hand glowed green, and Charizard slashed Ella zip-ties open effortlessly. She exhaled sharply at the relief, and shook her hands to forget about the lingering pain. She picked up all her poke-balls and recalled Umbreon and Bulbasaur because she did not want the fire to injure them.

 _Mairin and Chespin..._

"The four of you need to find a way out!" She called to her dragons. "I'll meet you outside. I need to go find Mairin and Chespin."

Her dragons went to work immediately. She went out on a staircase and started her search.

One thing that Ella had overlooked, though, was that the roots had infested throughout the labs, and the fire was now traveling through them. Everywhere she went Ella was choked with fire, and she became even more desperate. She went down hallways and opened doors aimlessly. Eventually her head went numb and she had trouble focusing.

"Ella?! Ella!" She heard from afar. Ella turned her head down the hallway and saw Mairin standing there with her Chespin clutched in her arms.

"Mairin!" Ella ran over to her. "Are you okay?"

"I'm scared," she said. "What's happening?"

"I don't know," Ella answered. She gently grabbed Mairin's arms. "But we have to go."

"What about Alain? He isn't here, is he?" Mairin asked.

"We have to go. I need you to show me the way out."

Mairin nodded sadly, and ran in the direction of the exit. By now, pieces of the ceiling had started to fall and the girls were dodging several burning pieces with every step.

After what seemed like running for hours, Mairin opened a door that led to an open hangar. Ella could see her Pokemon waiting in the clearing. But the fire had swollen tremendously and it was getting hard to breathe.

"Give it all you got!" Ella shouted. She held Mairin's head as they sprinted into the hangar.

The metal walls were melting and the roof was caving in. They had just made it out when the entire building collapsed.

The two took several minutes to clear their airways and catch their breath.

"Mairin, are you two all right?" Ella asked.

"Yeah, are you?" Mairin asked back.

"Yeah... I know what's happening. But we gotta get to Lumiose City. I bet Alain's there. Will you go with me?"

Mairin nodded apprehensively.

Ella sighed. "Charizard." Charizard walked over to the girls and bent down. Ella climbed on Charizard's back and then helped Mairin on, too.

"To Lumiose City. _Skaia!"_

Charizard took off at a running start and within seconds Charizard was flying comfortably in the sky with the rest of Ella's dragons following behind.

 _I'm coming Lysandre._ Ella spoke in her mind. And _you can't stop me now._

* * *

 **AN:** Finally got time to finish writing! Hope you enjoy it, let me know what you think!

And I guess I should give song credits:

"99 Bottles of Beer" - American folk song.

"It's a Small World" - Disney

"Wannabe" - Spice Girls


	16. Battle of the Illuminated City

"Now Charizard, use Flamethrower!" I shouted as my Charizard incinerated a vine in bright blue flames.

Steven and I had been fighting through the chaos for what seemed like forever. We were pushing our way through the streets of Lumiose City, trying to clean them of the vines that overtook them. Everyone in the streets were panicking and scurrying about. We ran into Officer Jenny after a while, who told us that the vines originated from Prism Tower and that her police team were trying to get there to investigate. So Steven and I decided to get there, too.

The whole way there all I could see were people crying, people screaming, people clinging to their loved ones, and people lying lifeless in the street. So much despair and death on all these innocent people and it was because of Lysandre's conception of perfect.

I wanted, more than anything, to be able to help these people. But I had to find Lysandre first. Because if I didn't, then there would eventually be no one left to help...

We cut and burned through as many vines as we could. But it seemed like it was no use. More vines came after another, and nothing was getting better. Even though I had grown up in the city and I knew every path around, the whole place began to look the same with the destruction.

I wish this would have never happened. I wish I would have listening to Ella instead of listening to my irrationality. I wish I could go get Ella and Mairin. I wish I would have never pushed Mairin away in the beginning. I wish Chespie would have never been involved in that terrible accident. I wish that this would all be over. I wish that this nightmare would end.

I wish I could say that this wasn't all my fault.

"I can finally see Prism Tower!" Steven's shouting broke through my melancholy. We were still running, and we were about to exit the Rouge Plaza and into the central circle of the city.

The inner circle was a place full of chaos. Thick red vines covered the place like a messy blanket. All of the pavement on the ground was tore up. The worst part, however, was that there was no sign of life in the inner circle. And everyone who was there lay their distorted and disfigured bodies on the ground with no chance of tomorrow.

I felt sick to my stomach. I looked to the ground and became even more sick. My shoes were covered in red, sticky liquid. They squished on the uneven pavement as I moved them.

I looked up to Prism Tower. Up there was a red, snake like Pokemon with one white eye and large black appendages coming from its back. Its glowing red aura around it let me to believe that it was partially responsible for this destruction. Lysandre stood behind it, smiling contently.

I ground my teeth and snarled. I heard Charizard growl behind me. I made my move towards the tower with Charizard behind me, preferring to fly in the air. Steven and his mega-evolved Metagross eventually followed us too.

We were one step away from the base when a red vine shot at high speed at Steven, but his Metagross was able to stop it with a quick Flash Cannon.

"Why did it attack me," Steven said. "You're here too."

"Maybe it's been waiting for me," I said in response, glaring at Lysandre from the bottom of the tower. I looked at Charizard, who lowered himself so I could climb on his back. He flapped his wings fiercely and he took off in flight towards the top of the tower.

I heard Steven call after me, but I didn't respond. I couldn't stop. I knew what I had to do. I had to face him.

I never turned around. The fly up to the tower seemed like forever. The fate that awaited me was imminent yet unknown. But before I knew it, there he was, with me flying overtop him.

Charizard found on open space to land on and I quickly climbed off his back. Lysandre, Xerosic, and several grunts stood at the top of the tower; and they greeted me with a smile I never returned.

"Alain," Lysandre said cheerfully.

"Lysandre," I said sternly, approaching him.

"Are you here to witness the birth of the new world?" Lysandre asked, extending his arms to the broken city.

"Birth? You call this a birth?! Looks more like death to me," I retorted.

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder," he responded.

"Why are you doing this?!" I begged. "Why must you destroy this world?"

"This world is wrong. The people have ruined it. For years I tried to believe in humanity. But for years I was let down by the selfishness of human desire. Humans have ruined the order of the world and they need to be punished accordingly."

"But you're killing innocent people..." I felt my heart ache.

"They are only sacrifices I must make for a new world."

I pulled my eyebrows down with anger tracing every part of my face. "You're harming innocent Pokemon as well."

Lysandre bowed his head and lost his smile. "They are casualties I must cope with."

"How can you say such a thing? You can't do this, I can't let this happen!" I was screaming at this point, and Charizard joined me at my side; he was ready to strike should he need to.

"But you did let this happen," he said quietly.

I gasped and lost my anger quickly.

"That's right, Alain. Let it sink in," he continued. "Thanks to the mega evolution energy that you've been harvesting all this time, we were able to power up this mind control machine, as well as enhance Zygarde's power with it."

"That's Zygarde?!" I asked shockingly.

"Indeed, and it will bring me my new world." His deadly smile appeared again.

"Unwillingly."

All heads turned at the new voice, but it was the only voice I'd been hearing the past several hours.

The shiny Metagross hovered there with its well-kept trainer standing on top of it. They looked tired, and I assumed they had to fight off some vines to get up here. Metagross moved forward and allowed Steven to jump onto the tower. He stood beside me with Metagross now levitating behind him.

"That mind control machine is forcing it to use its power on Lumiose City! You can't do this, it's just wrong!" Steven shouted as he pointed to the machine.

Lysandre pressed his lips together and stared at Steven.

"Zygarde," he said calmly. "Do something about him."

Then, small but effective vines came out from underneath Steven's feet and began to wrap around him. More and more appeared until he was confined in a cocoon of vines, with only his head uncovered. Something similar happened to Metagross, it was pulled to the ground and the vines kept it from getting free.

"Like I was saying, Alain," Lysandre continued. "This is all thanks to you. This is the power that mega evolution energy harvests. And yet you trainers use it to win a Pokemon battle. Pathetic."

Truthfully, I should have known all this time. Ella tried to tell me what was really going on, but I didn't listen. Why didn't I listen... I clenched my fists.

"She... she tried to tell me," I said, barely choking the words out.

"Ella tried to tell you?" he laughed. "Well, thank you for not listening."

"Why did you choose me? Why did you manipulate me?" My voice was steadier.

"Because you have ambition, Alain. You wanted to study mega evolution for the Professor, so I tricked you into thinking you were doing so. It was easy. You've been collected the energy I've needed since day one."

"You're evil!"

"And then when the Chespin got sick it started getting even easier. You were so driven to help the poor thing out while becoming stronger to protect the girl and the Professor. It was like nothing could stop you. And then someone did."

I lowered my eyes. "Ella..."

"Yes. She came and then she slowed you down. You started battling less and spending more time with her. That was suspicious enough but then we found out someone had been hacking into our archives online," his eyes went to Steven, who showed no signs of regret.

"We knew who she was and we knew she was his friend, so we figured there had to be some connection," he smiled. "But she did our work for us. She scared you away, and we were able to kidnap her and punish her for attempting to infiltrate us."

"You're sick. You're sick and evil! You have to stop this! Stop this right now!" I was screaming so hard that my voice was hard and raspy.

"Zygarde!" he spoke again. This time, the large Pokemon wailed its cry and I could see more vines penetrating the buildings and more screaming could be heard in the distance as well.

But I could not let it effect me. I remembered what Steven and I had planned to do. We were going to destroy the machines. One Blast Burn, and it would be gone. That's all it would take. I looked at Charizard while Lysandre was off-guard, and I knew he was thinking the same.

Just then, elevators that led from the inside of the tower opened and out came another grunt who stopped a few feet away from Lysandre.

"Sir," he greeted.

"What is it?" Lysandre asked with slight annoyance in his tone.

"It concerns the labs. They have been burned to the ground. Others were sent to view the wreckage. They found no survivors."

Lysandre didn't respond. He never even turned around. But he didn't have to say anything. He knew the effect it had.

If my heart were glass, then it was nothing but a million shattered pieces trickling the pain of loss and suffering through every part of my body. I huge lump swelled in my throat and I could no longer breathe. My brain spun like it was swelling. I couldn't think straight. I fell to my knees.

 _They're gone... they're gone... and they're not going to come back._

The only thing I could process was a scream. A loud, piercing scream that traveled all the way through Lumiose City. I buried my head in the ground and let out some more screams. I hit my fists on the ground until my knuckles started to bleed.

"How could I let this happen! Why didn't I go back and save them! I could have helped them! I could have saved them! I- I-," I stopped to take some breaths. "Ella, Mairin... I still had so much to do for you.. both of you." I felt the tears falling down my cheeks. "Why didn't I think of those things..."

"Losing someone can be hard, Alain. But right now, the only people you need is us. We're the ones keeping you alive," Lysandre said.

I flicked my eyes up at him. Anger replaced sadness on my face within seconds. "Need you?" I repeated. "I don't need you. You're the ones who have ruined me. People haven't ruined this world. You have!"

At this point, I didn't care if I lived or died. All that I had been fighting for was taken from me. Taken from me just as easily as I had received it. Charizard roared behind me, ready to fight.

"Face me, Lysandre! I'm going to defeat you! And there's nothing you can do to stop me!" My voice no longer belonged me to, it belonged to the wild animal I had become.

"Now, why would I do that?" Lysandre faced me and smiled. "I need you to keep doing what I need you to do."

His eyes were fixed on something behind me, and I turned around to see Xerosic, who had been quiet all this time, firing up the mind control machine. After a few seconds, a red beam of light fired at Charizard and me. We had no reaction time and it hit us instantly. All I can remember is intense stinging pain before everything went black.

* * *

Ella and Mairin flew all the way to Lumiose City from Lysandre Labs. The dragons were tired, but they understood that the situation was dire and kept pressing on. The travel had made Ella's head fuzzy, and she and Mairin exchanged few words. The red-head was too busy rubbing her arms, which had unfortunately been burned on the way out of the labs. However, other than her wrists, Ella suffered no injuries at all.

"We'll treat those burns as soon as we can," Ella assured her. They were flying over the outskirts of Lumiose City now.

"Thanks," Mairin said sadly as she stared at her sleeping Chespin on Ella's Charizard's neck. Ella noticed her sadness and attempted to comfort her, something Ella had never been good at.

"Hey, it's going to be okay," Ella said. "I promise. I know this is so sudden but when it's over, it's all going to be okay."

"But," Mairin said, choking back tears. "Now that the labs are gone, I don't know who will help Chespie wake up. And Alain hates me, he wants nothing to do with me."

"That's not true," Ella said. "He adores you. He wants nothing but the best for you."

Mairin didn't seem to consider her words.

"And besides," Ella spoke again, instructing Charizard and the rest of her Pokemon to land. "You're not the only one awaiting a confrontation with Alain. We can do it together," she smiled.

Mairin returned a sad smile back and grabbed her Chespie. They hopped off the black Charizard together and walked through the gates of the city.

Then, they were in immediate pandemonium. The same red vines that covered the labs now covered the city. People were running and screaming everywhere, and those who weren't were... well, you know.

They had landed on the South Boulevard. Everything was unrecognizable. The city had looked like it had gone through the apocalypse, like some natural disaster only a god could conjure.

Ella was sad to see her surroundings, but she knew she had to keep cool in order to not scare Mairin. She looked around with empty eyes, but had a hard time holding back when she heard Mairin starting to cry. Ella put a hand on her shoulder and caressed it slightly.

"Girls!" they heard in the distance.

"Professor!" Mairin screamed when she saw the voice's owner. She ran over and hugged him. "Professor! What's going on?"

"I don't know," he answered, looking around cautiously.

"It's Lysandre," Ella entered the conversation. "He's doing this. I just escaped as his prisoner from the lab. Remember what we talked about the day I came to visit you?"

"Yes, I remember," he said. "So you think we will find Alain with Lysandre?"

Ella nodded her head.

"Well," Professor Sycamore sighed. "Officer Jenny reports that the core of this destruction is coming from Prism Tower."

"Got it," Ella faced the professor. "I need you to stay here with Mairin and keep her safe. If I took her up there, Alain would never forgive me."

"Okay, but what are you going to do?"

"Stop them. Of course. At least try to."

The Professor sighed. "Okay. Just be careful, please."

The Sinnoh Champion nodded her head and mounted her mighty black Charizard. " _Skaia!_ " she shouted the flying command again in the ancient language, and the other three of her dragons followed.

They soared through the sky, with the other dragons protecting them against any vines that tried to slow them down. Getting to Prism Tower was a breeze until they reached the inner circle, when a wall of vines tried to stop them.

But she would not stop. "Dragon Rush!"

Garchomp, Salamence, and Dragonite cased themselves in bright flashing energy that shattered the vines like a thin layer of glass. They burst through the wall of vines and Ella saw everyone on top of Prism Tower.

She and Charizard were only a few feet above the top of the tower, so she jumped off and landed on it. When she rose, she took in her surroundings. She saw Steven Stone, who was confined in a cocoon of vines, as well as his Metagross who was pinned to the ground. There were several Team Flare grunts who were startled to see her. And then there was Lysandre who wasn't so happy to see her.

"Champion Ella Dracanima," he said grossly.

"Lysandre," she responded. "Where's Alain?"

"He's not here," he said. "He's out serving my purpose."

"Then I have no reason to be here," she said, ignoring the soft 'hey!' that came from Steven.

"I'm afraid I can't let you go, you might thwart my plans again. I can't have that," Lysandre said. He pulled a pokeball out of his jacket. It erupted with a red Gyarados that had a mega-stone around its neck. He pressed a keystone on his ring and everyone watched as the Gyarados took on its mega form.

Ella smirked. "Fine. If it takes a battle, then a battle it is." She stood firmly, and her dragons lined up in front of her.

"Hyper Beam!" Lysandre shouted.

" _Dracafare!_ " Ella screamed. All four dragons shot a mighty Flamethrower back.

And so began the battle of Lumiose City.


End file.
